Dances and Poisons
by Chirakka
Summary: Um... This fic has many OC's, and the main char. is part of the Kaguya clan (Kimimaro's clan). There's also another Hyuuga and another Inuzuka on her team, under their sensei Genma. Don't think i'll ever finish this, eh
1. Default Chapter

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the characters, concepts, names and related indicia. They are copyright (c) Masashi Kishimoto... Why do we even need to add that thing? Eh, anyways, enjoy:_

* * *

Kumori crouched in complete silence, her presence still unnoticed by the two men who ran the small bread stand. They were speaking loudly to each other, one of them with his back to her, and she decided to take the chance to reach up. He hand touched on a larger bag of bread and she slid it off the table, accidentally dropping another on the ground.

The sound of the bread hitting the dirt road below caused the two men to look over in curiosity. Kumori was huddled back in her hiding spot, hoping they wouldn't find her. Her hopes were crushed, however, as one of the men came to pick up the bread. He bent down, grabbing the bag, his head inches from where she was crouched. It was too much for her.

She suddenly burst out of her hiding spot, clutching the bag protectively to her body. There were a few moments of silence as she darted down the street until it was shattered.

"Thief! Thief! Get back here you little brat!"

Chancing a look over her shoulder, she saw them dashing after her quickly, gaining easily. There was no way she could possibly make it in time. She would have to face them.

Skidding to a halt, she spun around to face them, still clutching the bread. They stopped running a few feet away from her, facing her as well.

"Give it back, kid," said the one closest to her, taking a step forwards.

"Don't come any closer!"

The man grinned and stepped forwards further, invading her personal space. She dropped the bread and held out her hands, stopping him in his tracks.

"Move!" he barked.

"I said don't come any closer! Stay back!"

The man took another step forwards and she charged at him, anger flashing through her eyes. The skin on the palm of her hand bulged slightly, before the skin broke painfully, a long white bone shooting out. The man stopped suddenly, jerking his head back as the sharp bone pressed into his neck, drawing a slight amount of blood.

In the moment of silence that followed, there was a deep roll of thunder directly overhead, followed by a few raindrops. Another storm. The man pulled back shakily, taking a few small steps back before turning and running.

"Demon! She has a bloodline!"

He was soon joined by the other man, and they vanished back down the street. Kumori drew the bone back into her hand, wincing in pain as blood trickled down her fingers. She lifted the bread from the ground and dashed along the road, turning down a dark alleyway and falling into a walk.

It had started to rain now, and it stung her eyes as she squinted into the darkness. A shadow passed in front of her, scaring her, until she recognized it.

"Akisu!" she hissed, crouching down to stroke the large cat. It's glossy, well-kept fur was deep tan in colour, with small brown speckles dotting it. The warmth returned to her fingers as the cat arched its back, stretching luxuriously. She stood again, walking beside it into the shadows.

"Akame, are you awake?"

Something shifted slightly, coughing a few times in the darkness. She stepped forwards, oblivious to the darkness, until she found herself staring into a pair of blood red eyes.

"Kumori?"

"Yeah, I got some food," she whispered, opening the bag of bread. She handed one to the dark figure and pulled out the other for herself. The figure tore the bread in half, feeding it to the large cat.

As she began tearing away at her own bread, her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The boy in front of her, Akame, was quite possibly thinner than herself. He had unnerving red eyes with slits for pupils to match his cats. His black hair was messy and constantly hung in his eyes, but did not stop them from almost glowing in the dark.

She heard a soft jingling and her eyes fell upon a long, thick chain. The chain had one end locked to the chain-link fence that he rested on, and the other end attached to a doubled up leather collar around his neck. They had each tried numerous times to break it, but it was no use.

Kumori looked down at her own body. It was hopelessly thin; she hardly ever ate a proper meal. She wore a pair of torn black pants and a dirty black tank top. Her arms were slightly scarred because of overuse of her bloodline, and her hands were dirty. She had striking green eyes and black hair which she kept tied back in a messy bun. Across her shoulders, stretching across her small back was a large tattoo of a snake, the symbol of her clan.

Her clan had been caught in the middle of a war which had been started by them. The Kaguya clan had been feared among other clans because of its ultimate bloodline of bone manipulation. Other clans had started to fight, eventually killing off every member of their clan except for her and one other. The other person was the reason she had taken to the streets in the first place. Kaguya Kimimaro, the successor to the clan's head, the one who she would have been forced to marry. She hated him. He had too much talent for a child only a year older than herself; he had mastered the five dances of their clan easily. She also hated his attitude. He was cold and dark, only caring about himself and no one else.

Another roll of thunder snapped her out of her thoughts. It was pouring rain now, a common thing in the Hidden Cloud. She stood, wiping water out of her face and brushing a few sodden strands of hair from her eyes.

"I'm going to go now. Maybe there's still time to find more food, but I doubt it."

Akame looked up at her, his hair flattened from the rainwater. His cat jumped into his lap and curled up, out of the rain.

"Alright. See you later then."

Before turning away, she bent down and kissed him lightly on the cheek, wishing they could get out of this hellhole and live normally. She turned and walked slowly out of the alleyway, back into the storm.

As she walked, she felt the pressure of the dark clouds above suffocating her. It was Autumn and the air was cold, biting her skin ruthlessly and whipping rain into her eyes. She shivered, her lungs screaming as she sucked in another breath of icy air.

A moment later, she found herself on the ground, shivering in a small puddle. Her muscles had given out from lack of energy. She lay still for a few moments, before pushing herself up against a cold stone wall, clutching her knees to her chest.

Akisu suddenly appeared in front of her, hissing and spitting, the hair on his back raised. She lifted her head and found herself looking into the masks of three Anbu. She knew about the Anbu from her short-lived shinobi days, from her time spent in the Hidden Cloud's ninja academy.

She sat in silence, looking up emotionlessly at the three dark figures. The cat in front of her ceased hissing, and backed up until it was beside her. There was another roll of thunder, followed by a flash of lightning.

The one in the middle removed his mask and crouched down in front of her, his brown eyes meeting her green orbs as the rain pounded down harder.

"You're going to die out here kid. You should find somewhere to stay," he said. She blinked away a few raindrops.

"I don't have anywhere to go."

The Anbu eyed her for a moment, before another member of his team placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We have to get back to Konoha and report back to the Hokage-sama."

The Anbu in front of her said nothing as his companions turned away slightly. Kumori looked back at him in silence, thinking hard.

_Konoha? They're from the Leaf? What are they doing here? Is there going to be another war_?

She decided to voice some of her thoughts. "What are shinobi from another village doing here? Is there going to be another war?"

The two Anbu who were walking away suddenly stopped and turned around. The one who had last spoken received a whack over his head. The one in front of her shifted slightly and sighed.

"Kill her. She'll tell someone."

Kumori's blood froze as she looked up into one of the Anbu's masks. She pulled her legs up closer to her protectively.

"She's just a kid. She doesn't deserve to be killed at such a young age."

"Then what should we do? If she knows, we can't just leave her here."

"We can take her with us; she could train as a shinobi of the Leaf."

_Go to the Leaf? But what about Akame? I don't want to be killed though…_

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small necklace, slipping it to her side and giving it to Akisu. He took it in his mouth, looking up at her.

"Get up kid; you have to come with us."

"I can't move," she said, hoping they might just leave her. But the Anbu in front of her replaced his mask and lifted her out of the muddy puddle she had been sitting in. He pulled her arms over his shoulders and carried her away on his back. She turned her head to see Akisu staring after her in confusion, the small necklace dangling from his mouth.

_I'm sorry, Akame… But I promise, I will get stronger and come back for you. Promise._


	2. 2

A/N: Finally found the other chapters on a disc, so I can post the others now. I wrote this a long time ago (Around the time when we first get introduced to Kimimaro in the manga).

* * *

Kumori awoke late, the sun filtering through a window to her left. She sat up sleepily, looking around the small room. She was in a comfortable bed with a number of fluffy pillows behind her. Although she was still in her dirty clothes, she felt dry and warm for the first time in years.

She slowly pushed herself from the warmth of the covers, her bare feet touching the wooden floor lightly before she completely slid down. Her muscles ached and her hand hurt from when she had used it the other day. Or week, or… She paused, rubbing her eyes. How long had it really been?

There was a knock on her door, and she moved across the room, opening it. The Anbu who had picked her up looked in, a toothpick bobbing up and down in his mouth.

"You're up," he said simply. He shoved a pile of clothing into her arms before pulling back out of the room.

"Get dressed, the Hokage-sama and some of the Jounin want to see you."

She had no time to question as he trotted back down the hall. She lifted the outfit she had been given, and noticed it was almost exactly the same as her current one. A black tank top and black pants. There were also a pair of dark blue sandals.

She dressed quickly, finding that everything fit perfectly, and moved into the bathroom attached to the room. She pulled her hair out of its usual messy bun and picked up a hairbrush from the counter, brushing it out. When she got all of the knots out, it came down to just past her shoulders, which surprised her.

Kumori pulled it back into another bun, this time neatly with no strands hanging off of it. There were still a few annoying strands that hung in her face though, they weren't long enough to reach the bun. She stepped out of the bathroom and slipped on the sandals, moving back to the door and opening it, stepping into the hallway and looking around.

She turned left and found a staircase leading downstairs, taking it quickly and looking around when she reached the bottom. The house she was in was quite large and roomy, with only a few hallways and many separate rooms. She found her way into what she guessed to be the dining room and found the Anbu sitting on the couch with his arms behind his head, looking up at the ceiling.

He heard her enter and sat up, his toothpick bobbing in the corner of his mouth.

"You hungry?" he asked. He looked as if he hadn't gotten much sleep.

She nodded, fiddling with her hands. He pointed at the table where a large sandwich sat waiting for her. She sat down, eyeing it for a moment before devouring it in a matter of minutes.

"Are you ready to go?" asked the Anbu.

"Yeah. Thanks," she muttered, standing. He moved over to the door and opened it, stepping out into the sunlight. She followed him out, looking around at the Hidden Leaf curiously.

"What's your name?" asked the Anbu, turning and walking away. She followed, falling into pace beside him.

"…It's Kumori."

"Hn. I'm Shiranui Genma."

She looked around longer, looking up at the sun and blinking. She had rarely seen the sun in the Hidden Cloud, and even then it was usually accompanied by some storm clouds.

"Is it always this sunny here?"

Genma looked up, his toothpick bobbing lazily. "Never thought about it. I guess where you come from you don't get much sun. It hardly ever rains here."

They walked slowly towards the other end of the village, weaving between throngs of people in the busy streets. They stopped in front of a large building, Genma looking around for a moment before they entered.

The inside of the building contained many pictures on the walls along with some old looking swords on display. He led her past the displays and into another room full of Leaf-nin. Her stomach squirmed uncomfortably at the sight of this many people. She hoped she wouldn't have to say anything in front of them.

At the front of the room sat the Hokage, or so she guessed, a blonde woman who appeared to be quite young.

"Go stand over there and answer their questions truthfully," ordered Genma, pushing her lightly towards the center of the room. She swallowed hard, fiddling with her hands and stepping forwards.

"Thank you Genma," said the Hokage, smiling faintly. She turned towards Kumori, folding her hands lightly on the desk in front of her.

"You are from Kumogakure, right?"

"Yes," she answered simply, shifting nervously.

"What's your full name?"

"Kaguya Kumori."

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"How do you know about the Hidden Leaf and the other Shinobi Countries?"

"I was trained as an elite gennin in the Cloud's academy to become one of the shinobi guards that protected the Raikage-sama."

It became easier to talk as the Jounin around her seemed to disappear, making it seem as if it were only her and the Hokage. She relaxed slightly.

"So you are at gennin level?"

She nodded. The Hokage shifted slightly.

"Why were you alone on the streets?"

"When the war over bloodlines hit our country, the Raikage-sama was killed. I had lived with her as she trained me, but the next Raikage didn't want me and kicked me out."

"Kicked you out? ...That's not the whole story, is it? Tell us the rest. The Kaguya clan was the one to start the Bloodline war, so there must be more behind your story."

Kumori shifted slightly, glancing at Genma. She had to tell the Hokage.

"The whole story… I grew up as one of the highest ranking members of my clan, destined to success it as leader along with another called Kaguya Kimimaro. I didn't want to marry him, so I ran into the streets, leaving behind my clan. The Raikage-sama picked me off the streets and began training me as one of her bodyguards.

"When Kimimaro vanished one day, the Kaguya clan blamed his loss on another clan, starting the Bloodline war. I was not even half finished my training when the Lady Raikage was killed and I was sent back into the streets. The remainder of the Kaguya clan was slaughtered as well, leaving me as the last member unless Kimimaro is still alive somewhere."

"So you have the Kaguya bloodline?"

"Yes," she said, shifting slightly.

"Alright," said the Hokage, whispering something to a man taking notes beside her. He nodded and she turned back to her.

"Show us what you know in the art of Ninpou so far."

"What do you mean?"

"Show us the techniques needed to pass through the Ninja Academy. Henge, Bunshin no Jutsu, Kawarimi, the basics."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

She shifted slightly, bringing her hands into a seal. "Henge!'

There was a puff of smoke and the Raikage stood in the place. The Hokage nodded and the disguise disappeared.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Two clones appeared beside her, exact and perfect replicas of herself. She finished up by showing her the rest of the techniques needed to pass through the Academy before getting onto the more complicated things.

"Umm… Most of my other Jutsu are forbidden by the Raikage, but being one of her bodyguards, they were taught to me."

Some of the Jounin in the room leaned forwards in interest as she made a few seals. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Two shadow clones appeared beside her, before she released the Jutsu, making new seals.

"Tsuyoi Keibi no Jutsu!" A transparent wall rose up around her, forming an impenetrable dome. It required a lot of chakra to hold up this Jutsu, so she quickly released it. There were some impressed mutterings scattered throughout the room, and Kumori went on to show a few of her other Jutsu. She finished with a complicated form of Genjutsu and let it fade away, her head throbbing. She hadn't used so much chakra for years.

"Very talented. Most of those Jutsu are Chuunin or Jounin level. One more thing, can you show us a part of your bloodline?"

Kumori paused, thinking of the pain that came with using her blood limit, but nodded, shifting again. She didn't mind showing off. A bone pushed out from under the skin on her left shoulder and she reached up, pulling out a short sword and wincing.

"This sword is stronger than steel and is made of condensed bone tissue. I can control the density of my bones at will, strengthening them when needed. I also know three of the seven dances from my clan."

She replaced the bone sword, rubbing her shoulder as the wound healed up, leaving a small scar. It would disappear in a few hours. She wiped a small amount of blood from her skin and faced the Hokage.

"You're very talented, probably at chuunin level on your Jutsu, but we should start you off at the gennin level."

"No, I'm only gennin level. Not chuunin, far from it."

"Why do you say that? Your Jutsu are on a very high level."

"I'm not sure what the shinobi levels are like in this village, but in Kumogakure, I am just barely passing gennin level. Our chuunin level is probably your Jounin level. I'm not sure though, because I haven't trained with other ninja for years."

"Well," said the Hokage after muttering something to the Jounin beside her. "Here you are at chuunin level. We will assign you to a gennin team until the next chuunin exam."

She said nothing, listening intently to the Hokage's words. "Genma, will you take her in your team? You are one person short."

Genma's toothpick flicked up in irritation. "My team?"

"Your team also has talented gennin. And since she will be staying with you for awhile anyways, it should be fine."

Genma's eyes flicked aside, his toothpick bobbing up and down in thought. He flicked it to the other corner of his mouth. "Fine."

"You are dismissed. I have a lot of paperwork to do now. Kumori, come here tomorrow at the same time, I need you to fill out some of your own paperwork."

_Great_, she thought, turning to Genma. He flicked his toothpick again and led her from the room.

"I have to meet my team now, you can come today or rest more if you want."

Kumori's muscled ached and her head was spinning, but she didn't want to show any weakness. "No, I'll meet them today."

She followed him onto a field that was hidden a few yards into a small grove of trees. There were two boys there, one lying in the grass beside a medium-sized dog and the other leaning against a tree with his arms folded.

She followed Genma up to them, and the boy leaning on the tree pushed himself up. The boy in the grass sat up, rubbing his eyes. The dog beside him growled softly as she stopped before them.

"You're late, sensei," complained the boy on the ground, not bothering to stand.

"Had a meeting," mumbled Genma casually, his toothpick bobbing as he spoke.

"Who's that?" asked the other boy. Kumori met his eyes and was stunned at their colour. He had no pupils, his entire eye was white. The other boy on the ground had a red tattoo on each of his cheeks. They both had black hair, the white-eyed boy's reaching down past his chin and curling under neatly and the other boy's short and neatly spiked, held up with a considerable amount of gel.

"This is your new team mate, Kaguya Kumori. I expect you to make her welcome here, she has just arrived from the Hidden Cloud."

"Oh? Kumogakure? Why did she come here?"

"That's for her to say if she wants to. I'll give you a few minutes to introduce yourselves, I'll be right back."

Genma turned back the way they had come from, vanishing in a puff of smoke and leaving her alone with the other two. The boy with white eyes leaned back up against his tree, eyeing her suspiciously.

"I'm Inuzuka Tsunomaru. Just call me Tsuno. And this is Shouri, my Nin-dog."

The dog beside him gave a short bark, and she nodded, turning to the other boy.

"I'm Hyuga Hikari, the team leader," he said simply.

"I'm Kaguya Kumori from Kumogakure."

"Should we start training? Genma usually takes a long time doing whatever it is he does," said Tsuno, pulling a blade of grass out of his hair and flicking it aside.

"Wait," said Hikari, pushing off the trunk again. "This team is supposed to be made of the best gennin, the elite. So you are probably fairly talented, right?"

Kumori shifted uncomfortably under his pupiless glare. "I guess I'm stronger than most other gennin."

"Then let me test you," he said, a grin forming on his lips. Tsuno looked between the two and held up his hands, laughing nervously.

"Hehe… Maybe you should wait until you know each other better?"

Hikari brought his hands up into a seal, and Kumori reacted quickly, setting her fighting stance with her legs slightly apart, one hand in front of her and the other out the side.

"Byakugan!"

Veins crackled along the edges of Hikari's eyes and he dashed forwards, directly at her. She suddenly dropped away, falling into a low crouch and activating her bloodline.

Bones broke through her palms, elbows, shoulders and knees, her arms crossed over each other in the Kaguya stance. There was a pause, a moment of silence, as Hikari froze his hand inches from her face and her shoulder bone inches from his neck.

"Hey, easy you two," came Genma's voice. Kumori pulled her bones painfully back into her body as Hikari backed away, the veins around his eyes fading slowly. _A bloodline,_ she thought_, he has one too_.

"You have a bloodline?" he asked, moving back to his tree. She said nothing.

Genma dropped into the grass beside Tsuno, his toothpick bobbing. He pulled two bells from his Jounin vest and dangling them in front of the gennin.

"We are going to do another activity today. It's almost lunch, so we'll have to go until around one thirty. Your goal is to get these bells away from me before I give you your lunches."

Kumori's eyes fell on three containers of food. Her eyes darted back up to the two bells. _One of us isn't going to get a lunch_, she thought, shifting slightly.

"But sensei, there's only two bells. There are three of us," said Tsuno, looking around.

"I'm not done explaining yet. You will have until one thirty to take these bells from me, but there are only two bells. The one who fails to steal one from me gets tied to a tree with no lunch, and will therefore be worn out during the training after lunch."

Kumori went perfectly still, thinking hard. She had used up a lot of her chakra while showing the Hokage her Jutsu, and was only at about twenty percent right now. If she wanted lunch, she would have to steal a bell quickly.

"Go!"

Genma disappeared, leaving the three gennin in the middle of the clearing. Kumori paused, thinking for a moment before vanishing as well, taking to the trees and searching.

She found him in another clearing, leaning against a tree casually with his eyes closed. She was immediately on alert, in case it was a trap. She caught a glimpse of Tsuno to her left, preparing to jump into the clearing. Idiot, she thought, watching as he burst from the trees along with his dog.

A moment later, he and his dog were both hanging upside down from a branch, Genma jingling the bells in front of his face. She used this chance to make a few seals, switching her body and replacing it with a rock near the tree where Genma stood. He leaned back up against the tree and Kumori waited patiently for him to relax his guard.

The bells were only a few feet above her, so easy to reach. She slowly released the jutsu, before jumping up from under him, her hand closing around one of the bells and pulling it out of his hand. She made a few quick seals as she ran.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Three clones covered her escape as she vanished into the trees. One of them cut Tsuno and Shouri from the branch, letting them fall to the ground. She darted back towards the clearing, but something suddenly snatched the bell away from her, right from her hand. She tripped and fell suddenly, scraping her elbows.

"Thanks," came Hikari's voice. She pushed herself up as he vanished into the forest. But she wouldn't stand for that. She was up and after him in a matter of seconds, catching up to him as he paused back in the main clearing.

"What do you want?" he asked, tossing the bell up and down tauntingly.

"It's a bit obvious, isn't it?" she replied sarcastically. He said nothing.

He suddenly fell into his fighting stance, grinning. "We never finished our fight."

She grinned as well, welcoming the challenge and falling into her own stance.


	3. 3

Kumori forced her bones back out through her palms as Hikari dashed directly at her, this time managing to weave away just in time to avoid a bone in his right shoulder. At the speed they moved, it would appear as if they were heading at each other with a killing intent.

Hikari was fast, it was as if he could predict her movements exactly. After a few moments of dodging well placed attacks, this began to annoy her. She jumped back quickly and faced him again.

"Yanagi no Mai!"

Bones erupted from many places on her body as she fell into her stance again. Her knees, elbows, palms, shoulders and the top part of her spine all had long, pointed bones projecting from them, threatening to impale anything that came within feet of her.

"What the hell are you!?"

Her eyes rose to meet those of an astonished Hikari, but he quickly regained his senses, readying himself. They flew back into a heated battle, dodging blows. Neither managed to get many hits on the other, but Kumori's chakra was dangerously low.

She knew she had to end this fight soon; otherwise she would fall unconscious from lack of energy. Jumping back again, she paused for a moment, thinking hard.

She reached up to her shoulder, grasping the bone with her right hand and pulling it out completely. Hikari was looking at her in horror as she fell into a different stance, slightly more relaxed and laid back.

"Tsubaki no Mai!"

She darted forwards, falling into a complicated swerving dance pattern and forcing Hikari back. This time, he was not as quick to recover from his surprise, and her bone blade managed to catch his arm, tearing open his white t-shirt and entering the skin below. Blood flowed down the bone, and the pain seemed to snap him back to reality.

"Kaiten!"

She was suddenly blown backwards as a giant dome of chakra exploded out from Hikari, his body spinning and sending it flying in every direction. She hit a tree hard, blood flying from her mouth before she slumped down painfully.

Hikari stopped his spin and she forced herself up, readying her bone blade and charging him, her face contorted in pain. He pulled out two kunai and charged as well, both of them charging with enough force to kill easily if they landed a hit on each other.

They met with incredible force, but something was suddenly between them, one hand grabbing her bone sword and the other hand raised, the arm bleeding as Hikari's two kunai embedded themselves into it. Genma flicked his toothpick in irritation.

"Nice teamwork. I leave you alone for a few moments and you try to kill each other."

"Sensei!"

Hikari pulled his kunai from the Jounin's arms, stepping back. Kumori replaced her bone, sliding it painfully back into her shoulder. She drew in the rest of her bones and stepped back as well. Tsuno came up to them as well, a bell in his hand. Kumori had forgotten about the bells, but as she remembered, she cast a dirty glance towards Hikari, who didn't seem to notice.

"So the one without a bell is Kumori," said Genma, the irritation in his voice evident. A moment later, Kumori found herself tied to a tree securely with Tsuno and Hikari eating their lunches happily beside her.

She was perfectly still, her head hung and her eyes squeezed shut as she dealt with the side effects of using her bloodline. Her head throbbed painfully and the scars left behind from where the bones had broken through burned. It was also hard to breathe, her airways had tightened and her lungs sent pangs of pain through her chest with every breath. To her, it felt like she was underwater, suffocating.

Genma had disappeared somewhere again, leaving them alone to eat. He would come back to check on them later and instruct them on their training. Kumori forced another breath into her lungs, trying to relax them.

"Are you alright?" asked Tsuno, interrupting his lunch to look up at her.

"Can't breathe…"

"Did Genma tie the rope too tightly?"

She let out a raspy breath, squeezing her eyes shut tighter.

"It's not that… It's the side effects of using my bloodline."

Tsuno eyed her for a few more moments before returning to his lunch half heartedly. She finally managed to get her body under control again and relaxed, lifting her head and sighing.

"This place is so different then Kumogakure," she said absent mindedly, looking around at the bright forest. There were hundreds of birds flitting from tree to tree, singing their songs and going about their daily business.

"What's it like in the Hidden Cloud? You never told us about how you grew up either," said Tsuno, flopping back on the grass.

"The Cloud isn't the best place on earth. Everyday all you can see is storm clouds, all you can hear is thunder, and all you can feel is icy raindrops. I can actually count the number of times I've seen the sun fully on one hand."

"It's always stormy?"

She nodded, sighing. She thought about how many sleepless nights she had spent on the streets, shivering in the rain while she huddled against one building or another.

"And it's even worse when you grow up without a home to stay in. I spent four years, almost five, alone on the streets. Some days I couldn't move at all, I rarely ate, going up to a week with no food whatsoever. After the bloodline war, the Hidden Cloud had no money left and kids like me were common on the streets as young as three or four years old. I was one of the lucky ones who managed to make it through the winter every year.

"That was the most horrible sight. In the winter, you could see children huddled together for warmth on street corners, their dead bodies curled up and frozen alongside buildings. Some of the children even resorted to cannibalism. All because of the bloodline war."

"They ate eachother!? How did the bloodline war start anyways?"

"Its cause is equally divided between two people from the same clan. That would be the Kaguya clan's Kimimaro and myself, Kumori. We were to be the successors to the clan, but I ran, eventually being picked up by the lady Raikage herself to be trained as a personal bodyguard. The other, Kimimaro, mysteriously vanished two years later, when I was nine. Losing both clan successors was a heavy blow to the Kaguya clan, and they blamed another clan who had nothing to do with it and started the war."

"So it was partially your fault? You started a war?" This time it was Hikari who spoke, finishing his lunch and laying back as well.

She said nothing, listening to the birds for a few minutes until Tsuno spoke up again.

"The how did you get here?"

"Genma found me on the street and took me here, but…"

She dropped her head again, a troubled expression on her pretty face. She squinted, remembering the state she had left Akame in. He was probably still chained to the fence with his only company being his cat, Akisu.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she answered quickly, wiping the expression off her face.

'You left someone important behind," stated Hikari simply, She turned her head towards him in astonishment. But it quickly turned to anger.

"What would you know?" she snapped back.

"What are those from?" asked Tsuno. She looked down at her scarred arms, wincing as she remembered.

"Like I said, some days I couldn't move at all. It wasn't because my muscles didn't respond, it was because I would give up. My life was so horrible, I just didn't want to go on living."

It took a moment for her words to sink in, and for Tsuno to understand what she meant.

'Those are from suicide attempts!?"

"It was useless to try to kill myself though. Every time I cut open my arms, my bloodline would come into action and quickly heal it. It was useless, I was cursed to go on living. And I still am."

"What about that tattoo?"

"The Kaguya clan had two types of shinobi. Those born to fight with the bloodline and those born to utilize the clan's high tolerance for poison. The ones born to use the bloodline were marked at birth with a mark on their foreheads that granted them extra power. The ones fated to work with poisons were marked with the viper, having tattoo placed somewhere on their body, hiding a seal that prevented them from fully utilizing the bloodline. The poison masters were never taught the dances, but I learned by myself."

"Sounds like Hikari's-"

"Shut up, Tsuno," snapped Hikari, cutting him off. Genma suddenly appeared in front of them, an even more irritated look on his face.

"You three have no team work whatsoever. You make a horrible team. Looks like we'll be working on that for the next while."

He reached up, untying Kumori from her tree and letting her fall to the ground. She rubbed the feeling back into her limbs before standing along with her team mates. Genma pulled out a white cloth from inside his vest, waving it in front of them.

"The next activity is slightly different," he began. Kumori sighed, her head pounding from too much sunlight. It was going to be a long day.


	4. 4

Kumori lifted the container, holding it up to the dim light and swirling its contents around, mixing the dark brown liquid thoroughly before placing it back on the table. She removed three smaller vials from a holster that lay opened on the table, pouring an equal amount into each one before resealing them, labeling it and replacing it in alphebetical order.

She tossed the larger container into a small fire in the fireplace, along with a few other things, before quickly cleaning her other tools and replacing them in the holster as well. She had a mission today with her team, the first in a few weeks and an A ranked mission. She had selected the poison herself, it killed quickly, in a matter of minutes, and the ingredients needed for the antidote were hard to find.

She opened a drawer on the table, pulling out a pair of nekotes and placing them on the table. Selecting a vial of pale yellow liquid, she carefully poured it into a shallow dish, dipping the tips of the weapons into it. She moved over to the fire and lit a small candle, bringing it back to the table and heating the nekotes over it, sealing the poison onto them. It was a slow working animal based poison that could take anywhere from half an hour to three days to kill, but it was deadly none the less.

It had been a full year since she had become a Leaf gennin, and her and her team had grown closer, finally being able to work together properly. She packed the holster together and strapped it shut before moving over to the sink and washing her hands and arms. It was very early in the morning, and she was tired, but she had to meet Hikari and Tsuno soon.

Her apartment was small and poorly lit, she didn't have alot of money and usually kept the heat and lights off to save it. Moving into the bathroom, she got ready to leave. She pulled her hair out of its usual bun, brushing it quickly before retying it and looking in the mirror.

Her skin was fairly pale, but smooth and not sickly. Her features were sharp and small, adding to her beauty along with her striking green eyes. Her hair had grown out longer, reaching halfway down her back, but she kept in a bun constantly, out of the way, although a few strands always hung messily in her eyes.

She sighed, rubbing her eyes and stepping out of the bathroom, dressing quickly. She slipped on a pair of short, black pants along with a plain black tank top. The top was quite revealing, showing much of her back, shoulders and stomach, but it was required for her dances and for fighting properly. She bandaged the exposed parts of her legs, from her ankles halfway up to her knees, and slipped on her sandals. As she headed out the door, she grabbed her jacket, slipping it over her shoulders but not bothering to place her arms through the respective holes, instead simply pulling it around her.

The outside air was cold and stung her skin as she glanced around for a few moments. It was winter in Konoha, and although it never snowed here, the temperature still dropped at this time of year. And the fact that the sun had not yet risin added to the freezing cold. She shivered, pulling her jacket around her closely before trotting down the street towards the ramen stand. Ramen was not nearly her favourite food, but it was the cheapest and she often ended up eating it anyways.

By the time she finished her ramen, the sun had risen slightly, allowing her to better see the town. She paid for her ramen and left the stand, heading to the training field. Their mission didn't start until just before lunch, and her team decided to use their time training.

Kumori foud her two team mates taking a break in the grass, laying back and speaking quietly. Hikari had grown alot more friendly and Tsuno had become more serious. Kumori had only become quieter and more sarcastic towards them, but they still regarded her as a friend. Hikari still wore his plain white t-shirt and dark brown shorts, which always bothered Kumori seeing as he never seemed to get cold in them. Tsuno wore brown pants and a black long-sleevved t-shirt. He had a black dog collar around his neck that he said was for 'good luck' although it just seemed to get in the way. His dog, Shouri, had also grown, his coat thicker and a darker brown.

She walked slowly up to them, in her usual quiet manner, and they didn't seem to notice until she was standing directly over them. Tsuno jumped and his dag barked loudly, scaring her and causing her to jump as well.

"Geez, don't sneak up on me like that," he said, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head.

"It's not my fault your senses suck," she retorted, flopping down next to him.

"I thought you guys were gonna train for the entire morning. Nice training."

"At least we got up early to train in the first place," said Hikari.

"Yeah, why do you always sleep in?"

"Unlike you, I work in the mornings. It takes a long time to make a poison or an antidote, and it requires precision work. Sometimes I have to stay up all night just watching a vial of poison to see if it changes colour," she explained, pulling her jacket closer around her.

"You excited about today's mission?" asked Tsuno, rolling back onto the grass.

"Not really... There's five people we need to assasinate, you guys both get one to kill along with Genma, and I'm stuck with the last two, the two brothers. And I can't believe what the Hokage is asking me to do... 'Get close to them'?"

"Well, if we do this properly, we are automatically promoted to Chuunin, so it's worth it. And anyways, with your looks it should be easy," said Tsuno. She supposed it was a compliment, but it didn't convince her.

"Still doesn't make my job easy. Why do I have to do it this way? Why can't I just jump in like you two and cut off their heads or something?"

"Because, this is the first mission you're going on as a kunoichi. Kunoichi are alot different from ninjas, They rely on mind-control techniques, poisons and their bodies to kill or get information," said Hikari, sitting up. The sun had fully risen now.

"Let's get something to eat before we go," said Hikari, standing.

"I'm not hungry, but I'll just go with you guys," she said, standing as well. They trotted back into town, and Tsuno and Hikari got some ramen. Unlike her, they actually loved ramen, and it made her sick to see them wolf down bowl after bowl, even though they probably weren't even that hungry.

When they finished their last bowl, Kumori pulled them towards her apartment. "I need to get my stuff," she said. "Then we can go meet Genma."

Hikari and Tsuno already had their bags packed and shouldered, so they followed her into her apartment, climbing up the stairs and through the door. She didn't bother turning on the lights for them.

This was the first time either of them had seen her house, and they were stunned. The table and kitchen counters were covered in scrolls, listing ingredients for various poisons, and the sink had empty vials soaking in it. The floor had even more scrolls scattered across it, and they had blots of ink and other liquids staining them.

They followed her to the closet, only to be more stunned at what their eyes met. Shelf after shelf of neatly organized poisons and antidotes, each labelled clearly with a small tag. In the very back hung some clothing, that she quickly pulled out and threw on her bed.

"Pass me that holster on the table," she ordered. Hikari brought it carefully over to her.

"How much poison do you have?" asked Tsuno, looking around in awe.

"Enough to kill the population of Konoha," she replied, taking the holster from Hikari and crouching on the wooden floor, opening it. She pulled out a few vials and set them back in their appropriate places on the shelves, instead grabbing different ones and replacing them in the holster before folding it back up.

"Why'd you put them back?" asked Tsuno.

"Those were just a few simple poisons and an antidote. I don't think I'll be needing that antidote, it comes from the venom of a foreign species of snake. Although its poison is deadly and hard to counter, I don't think anyone will posess it aside from myself."

She pulled out a backpack from under a pile of clothing and stuffed the holster into it, before heading out of the closet and putting her clothes in as well. Moving over to the messy table, she carefully picked up her poisoned nekotes and placed them in her nearly empty weapons pouch before attaching it around her thin waist. She slung her backpack over her shoulder and left, followed by Tsuno and Hikari.

They found Genma waiting patiently by the village gates, his ever present toothpick bobbing up and down. He turned as they approached, smiling faintly.

"Ready?"

They nodded, following him out of Konoha, heading for the Hidden Waterfall, Takigakure. It was a days trip if they travelled quickly, but at their current pace they would reach it by tomorrow evening or night.

As they travelled through the forest, Kumori went over what she had learned in the last year here. She had mastered five of the seven dances, and almost mastered the sixth. When learning it became to hard for her, she turned to her poisons and began making many, labeling and organizing them for her own uses.

It had encouraged her more when Genma had informed her that Konoha had no professional poison specialists, although the hospital did contain a number of antidotes. She had spent countless hours researching poisons and their ingredients, making her own antidotes and testing them on herself. A few times she had nearly died when she took a wrong turn in making the antidote, but she always got out of it with her life.

She had even started to get paid for making antidotes and antivenoms for the hospital, but money didn't matter to her that much. The only reasin she did anything in life was so that one day she might get a mission to the Hidden Cloud so she could rejoin Akame. But recently, she had had doubts about abandoning Konoha. Perhaps she could get Akame to join her at the Hidden Leaf instead of her going back to Kumogakure.

Recently, thoughts of her previous village had started to bother her, causing her to fall in to long periods of silence. She would remember how she had left Akame and feel guilty. What if he wasn't still alive? What if someone had found where he had been chained and killed him? What if she was too late?

She felt like sharing her thoughts with Hikari and Tsuno, but she wasn't sure if she should. She had never mentioned Akame to them before, and didn't know what they say. She decided against it though, preferring to keep her feelings bottled up inside along with everything else. She knew it wasn't good for her, but she could see no other way around things like this.

The sun set and the group decided to set up camp in the forest, starting up a small fire and relaxing around it. Genma looked around in his backpack for a few moments before standing.

"I'll be right back. Maybe you should teach those two about poisons, it might be useful someday," said Genma, tuning and vanishing.

Kumori paused for a moment, thinking for a few seconds before opening her backpack and pulling out her holster and opening it. Hikari and Tsuno sat down beside her and watched as she told them about her poisons. This was only the second mission she had been required to have her poisons with her.

"Uhh... I'm not good at teaching, so I'll just explain the basics to you."

She pointed to one section of the holster. "These are plant based poisons and their antidotes, these are animal based with their antidotes, and these are chemical based. Plant based usually act the fastest, animal based and chemical based are about the same.

"Most animal based poisons affect the nervous system, attacking the brain, lungs, or heart and causing great pain. They always need to be injected or enter through the bloodstream in another way. Plant based usually attack other organs, especially the heart, but rarely the lungs. They usually need to be eaten to take affect. The chemiacal based are the most difficult to understand because of their unnatural componenets. Depending on the chemicals used, they might need to be eaten, sent in through the bloodstream, inhaled, placed in the eyes or ears, or, for some of them, even just touched to your skin.

"The poisons act in various ways. Some of them cause diseases like tetanus by entering the bloodstream, some erode the layers of tissue on your organs causing internal bleeding, some stop muscle movement so you'll die from lack of blood or oxygen, and others cause blindness, paralysis or deafness."

She moved her hands to each respective poison as she gave examples of what it did, before her hands moved to the metal instuments on the other side.

"These are actually weapons used to poison people. Poisoned senbon, syringes, string, cloth... All can be utilized as a deadly weapon. But they can also be used to save lives. Senbon can be used as acupuncture needles, slowing the flow of poison or nullifying pain, syringes can inject antidotes, string can be used to cut off bloodflow to an area and cloth can be used to staunch bloodflow."

She pulled out a small syringe, holding it up for them to see cleary. "The last thing I wanted to show you is how to use this. When filling it with an antivenom, hold it like this to make sure you don't get any air in it, and once filled squirt the first centimeter out to get rid of any oxygen. One small oxygen bubble in a syringe will kill you in seconds, once it reches the brain. You then have to clean the area you are injecting it into, usually the arm, and carefully slide it in on around a thirty to forty-five degree angle. Make sure you inject all of the antidote before pulling it out and covering the hole to make sure none of it escapes."

She replaced the needle in her case, carefully sliding it back into a side puch beside a number of other syringes, all different sizes.

"How did you make all the antidotes? How do you know if they work or not?" asked Tsuno, eyeing the poisons with a new respect.

"I test each poison and antidote on my own body," she replied simply, folding up her holster.

"What happens if something goes wrong?"

"I either die, rush to the hospital or quickly fix whatever went wrong."

"So you haven't made a mistake before?"

"I've made hundreds of mistakes," she said, slipping her arm out from withing her jacket. She turned it over, showing him a small crater, about the size of a dime, just below her elbow.

"That time I came the closest to death. I injected venom from a spider right there and forgot about it becaus I was sleep deprived. I fell asleep with the venom still working inside of my body, and woke in the middle of the night unable to breathe. Luckily, I had made a working antidote that time. I injected it quickly before passing out on the floor, but I still pulled through."

"How can you do that to your own body?"

She didn't reply to this because the answer was 'So I can become stronger and find Akame again.' She replaced her holster in her backpack, suddenly silent, deep in thought about Akame. She pulled out her small bedroll and rolled it out a few feet away from the fire. She sat up, staring into the fire in silence as she thought. When she looked up she saw Hikari staring at her. He quickly turned away, and she lay back, rolling over and facing away before closing her eyes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They reached Takigakure at dusk, stopping and looking up at the village. It was one of the few Hidden Villages that was fairly well hidden, the majority of it being hidden behind a giant waterfall. It didn't take much work to get into the village, a simple henge and some sneaking behind the roaring waterfall. The village itself was not in the cave behind the waterfall, but in the mountains behind it. The cave acted as a tunnel through the mountains and into the town, which was exceedingly busy even at night.

They strolled the streets casually in their disguise until they found a small, inconspicuous hotel. They had been given five days to complete the mission and a week to return to Konoha. Genma booked two rooms, one for himself and the other for the three gennin, for five days, although they would probably switch hotels tomorrow or the day after.

Kumori lugged her backpack up the stairs, following her sensei to the room she, Hikari and Tsuno would be sharing. She chose the bed on the far end of the room, placing her back beside it and moving to the bathroom. Tomorrow they would begin their mission, each goig their separate ways. She pulled off her jacket and hung it on the back of the door before pulling out her bun, letting her hair fall over her shoulders.

She said nothing to the other two as she stepped out and flopped back on her bed, curling up under the covers. She fell asleep in a matter of minutes, tomorrow was going to be a tough day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She woke early the next morning, moving into the bathroom quietly to avoid waking the other two and quickly showing. She tied her hair up in its usual bun, this time securing it with two, poison-tipped chopsticks, just in case. She moved back out of the bathroom, rummaging through her bag and pulling out two vials, one a deadly venom and the other its antidote. She probably wouldn't use it today, but she pocketed it just in case. Today she had to find her targets in this town and 'get to know them.'

Her targets were Saigo and Kurome, two young missing-nin from the Hidden Leaf and part of an organization here in Takigakure. They renowned for their good looks and mind games, able to get anything they wanted out of anyone. They specialized in Kin and Genjutsu, and were highly intelligent, having hundreds of original Jutsus made up by themselves. She had been warned over and over not to underestimate them or fall in love with them for real, as it was quite possible. But she didn't think she could fall in love with them by any means, no matter how handsome they were.

She had memorized their faces, and set out of the apartment to go look for them. She had to get this done quickly in order to finish the mission in the time they had been givin, and not to take longer than that. She was suprised at the time it took her to find them, but then again, you couldn't miss them.

They stood together in the middle of a crowd of girls all around her age. They were hounding them, following them everywhere. Saigo looked pissed off as he did in his picture, but Kurome was happily speaking to the girls, waving and smiling. Kumori gagged in disgust at his behaviour before moving over to a small sushi bar and sitting down, watching them. They would notice her eventually.

It appeared this happened every morning, because the girls eventually began disappating, going back to their daily business. Saigo and Kurome came to the sushi bar and sat down, Kurome beside her, but didn't seem to notice her.

"Nice tatoo," said Kurome. Apperently she had been noticed. She looked up into his handsome face, studying him silently. Perhaps this would be harder than she thought, they were both good looking. She noticed his arms were covered in tatoos, pictures of demons, demon foxes, dragons, griffins, snakes and others. He was wearing a loose white t-shirt and black shorts. Saigo was still silent, although he was looking at her with intrest, his dark eyes flicking across her body. He wore a black sleeveless shirt and black pants, his Waterfall head protector tied around his head bandana style and his black hair covering half of his face.

"You gonna order something?" asked Kurome.

"I don't have any money," she said in a her normal, bored voice. This seemed to catch Kurome's attention further.

"My treat then," he said, placing a large order. A moment later, there was a large platter of sushi placed in front of the three. There was a wide variety of sushi, sashimi and other seafood, even some sauce-covered yakitori. Kurome began wolfing it down and she and Saigo watched in disgust. Saigo noticed her looking at him with the same expression and smiled, picking up his own chopsticks. She decided she liked Saigo alot more than Kurome, but both would need to be killed sooner or later.

She picked up the chopsticks before her, quickly breaking them and choosing a piece of sushi from the platter. She ate slowly, her eyes darting towards her two targets every now and then.

"So, what's your name?" asked Kurome, placing his chopsticks on the platter and sitting back, stretching.

"Shiranui Kiri," she lied, eating another piece of sushi.

"Haven't seen you around here before," he said, eyeing her again.

"I'm here with my father on a business trip until saturday. We came from a small village just outside the Hidden Mist."

"Oh? Only until saturday? What's your father do?"

"He's a doctor," she replied casually.

"Do you know who I am?"

"I heard all of those people calling you Kurome, right?"

He laughed, stretching and closing his eyes again. "Yeah... we get alot of that. It's not like I enjoy it though, those girls are all loud and annoying."

_Yeah right_, she thought. _I know you like it. _She ate the last piece of sushi, placing her chopsticks back on the platter and sitting back as well.

"So... do you want a tour of the village?" asked Kurome. "It's a great place when you know where to go."

She looked up at him. Was it really this easy, to just sit here and act shy and quiet? She smiled faintly.

"Sure," she said quietly.

"Great! Let's go!"

Kurome grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the sushi bar, leaving Saigo to pay up and running her down the street. She stumbled after him, smiling as he rushed to another building.


	5. 5

"This is our house," said Kurome. The sun was beginning to set, and this was their last stop on his tour. Saigo had said hardly anything all day, but he smiled and laughed alot. Kurome led her through the doors of a large house on the edge of town. The yard was well decorated, with a stream and a small pond and many beautiful flowers.

The inside of the house was large and spacious, with weapons on display on the tables, walls and above the fireplace. It was very clean also, everything seemed organized. Kurome released her hand as she looked around.

"What are the swords for?" she asked, eyeing them anxiously.

"Practicing, display, whatever. Don't you know anything about shinobi?"

"Not alot. I don't live in the actual Hidden Village, I live outside it. I've seen shinobi before, I've seen them fight," she said, still looking around.

"Here, I'll show you," said Kurome. Saigo shifted slightly.

"Are you sure you should be doing this, Kurome?"

"I'm not gonna hurt her, I'll use it on you," he said, pulling a sword from a shelf.

"Hijutsu: MaKatana no Jutsu!"

Chakra exploded from the sword, snapping around in the shape of a nameless creatures head, fangs of chakra snapping towards Saigo. There was a flash of light, and when Kumori opened her eyes again, she saw Saigo with a sword of his own, blocking the powerful jutsu. Kurome laughed and lifted his sword, replacing it on the shelf.

"That's how ninjas fight," he stated simply.

He showed her around the rest of the house, taking her upstairs and showing her his room. It was large with a wide variety of weapons hanging on the walls. When he showed her Saigo's room however, her heart beat faster. This would be more difficult than she had thought, for sure now.

On the walls of Saigo's room hung hundreds of forhead protectors from various villages, which she guessed to be his victims. But what was worse, on the walls were shelves and shelves of poisons and antidotes, small weapons tha could be easily hidden, ingredients for making the poisons, things even she had never seen before.

"Yeah, Saigo has a thing for poison," said Kurome, noticing her amazement as she looked around. Saigo stepped in front of them and closed the door, cutting off her view of the room and steering his brother back down the hall.

"It's late," she said. "I should go."

"Sure... I'll walk you back, this town's not as friendly at night. You coming, Saigo?"

Saigo said nothing, but followed them out of the house. It took them only a few minutes to reach the hotel she was staying at, and they said their farewells.

"Do you want to do something tomorrow? You could come and watch us train if you want. I could show you some of my other Jutsus," said Kurome.

She smiled faintly, turnind away and brushing her hair out of her face. There was a moment of silence as she left him hanging.

"Sure," she said finally.

"Great! I'll come get you before training. What's your room number?"

"208," she said simply. She pushed through the hotel's front door, leaving Kurome and his brother outside. As soon as she heard Kurome's voice vanish, she dropped to the floor, covering her mouth and closing her eyes. She sat like that for a few minutes before standing and dashing upstairs, into her room. Hikari and Tsuno were already there, speaking quietly.

She burst through the door, cutting them off and dashing over to her bag, pulling out her poison case and opening it, looking over her arsenal. She swore under her breath and stood, flopping onto her bed and leaning against the wooden wall, bringing up her knees to her chest and burying her face in her arms.

"What's wrong?" asked Hikari, looking over at her. She said nothing for a few more minutes, but suddenly stood, whipping out a kunai and a photograph and throwing them at the same time to the wall beside the door. Genma stepped in at the precise moment the kunai embedded itself into the wall, pinning a picutre of Saigo to it.

"Woah, watch it," he said, jerking his head back.

"I swear, this is getting impossible...." she swore under her breath again as the other three looked at her in confusion.

"What went wrong?" asked Genma.

"Nothing, they were both staring at me! But, that guy," she pointed angrily at Saigo's picture on the wall. She remained pointing at it for a few moments, before dropping her hand and sighing.

"It complicates things considerably," she muttered.

"What does?" asked Tsuno.

"He is a poison master, more experienced then me. If he is able to identify the poison I use on him, he will be able to counter it easily."

There was a moment of silence. "Then make one without a cure," said Tsuno.

She clenched her fists in frustration, sighing loudly and turning away. "You don't get it," she muttered.

"Then tell us so we can help you out," said Hikari simply.

There was a moment of silence before she began explaining. "A poison master tests the poisons he or she makes on their own bodies, which not only tells them if what they're using is going to work, but it also builds up a strong resistance to poison. That's the first problem, he has a great deal more poisons than I and probably has a high resistance to all of them, making it impossible for me to easily poison him.

"The second problem, is that he will know the tricks people use when poisoning another, and will easily be able to recognize it if I use any. That will also make it impossible for me to get close enough to him.

"The third problem is that even if I manage to poison him, he will be able to make or find an antidote quickly. If I am not there to watch him die, he will probably continue living. On top of that, he is a former Leaf-nin and therefore knows all about Konoha poisons.

"The fourth is that he uses Genjutsu. Genjutsu plus poison equals big problems. There is no escape and he will be able to get me to give him any information he wants, even if I think I'm hiding it well.

"The fifth problem is that if he twists this around and I end up as the one being poisoned, even with my clan's resistance to poison and my own built up immune system, it will kill me quickly. He had many types of deadly poisons that I have only heard of in books, ones that I never knew existed. If he manages to poison me, I'm dead.

"The sixth and last problem is that he is probably a hundred times smarter than his brother. No matter what I try on him, he will always see past it, twist it around, use me, and then kill me. He has over a hundred forehead protectors hanging from his walls as trophies from the people he has killed. There was no blood on any of them, telling me that he knows how to use poison effectively."

The room was completely silent as even Genma seemed stunned at this boy's talent. Her fists were still clenched in anger, but she relaxed, a smile creeping onto her face.

"I suppose I'd enjoy a challenge, though," she muttered. She turned back around, flopping down in front of her poison holster. She opened a small compartment on the left and held up a single, black vial that had been melted together at the top securely, sealing it completely.

"Are you sure this isn't a bit too much of a challenge?" asked Genma. She looked at the rest of her team out of th corner of her eye, noticing their concerned expressions. She held up the black vial.

"I still have my trump card."

She pryed open the top carefully, pulling out a small container and carefully pouring the contents into it. They were black, with small dark bits floating in it. She reached into her bag and pulled out her weapons pouch, pulling out a singe nekote, the one for her ring finger, wiping it on her shirt before submerging the tip in the poison.

"This is crushed Kuroyuri, a deadly type of lily that blooms only once every twenty years. I was lucky enough to find one small flower a few months ago, and it only made a few drops of poison, but I have it nonetheless. If he is lacking one poison, it would be this one. There is no antidote and it kills in seconds, attacking the heart directly and stopping bloodflow."

She let the nekote sit in the dark liquid before climbing back into bed. But she sat up a moment after Genma left the room, suddenly remembering.

"Tomorrow morning Kurome is picking me up from here, so when you hear a knock on the door, hide youselves and your bags. I told him I was on a business trip with my dad."

She rolled over, falling asleep again facing away from the other two gennin. She drifted away, thinking of how she would kill the two brothers without knowing the other was dead.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the fourth night here, and she would be putting her plan into action tomorrow. She rolled over in her bed, thinking about her plan as she did every night. To her, it was almost flawless. Almost.

Kurome had invited her over to his house for her last night here, but had made it so that it was only her and him. Saigo was left out again, Kurome told him to 'go hang out at the sushi bar or whatever.' He had said nothing, but silently agreed.

Kumori was nervous, she could easily deal with Kurome, but Saigo was very difficult to get close enough to in order to poison him. But she had thought up a good enough plan. She closed her eyes, rolling over again as tried to comfortable position. tomorrow was going to be a stressful day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She shakily reached up and knocked on the door, and it opened quickly, revealing Kurome in his usual white t-shirt and black shorts. She stepped in silently, deep in thought. Her tongue ran across a small capsule in her mouth that she would bite at the precise moment if things went according to plan.

"I got you something as a going away present," he said, handing her a large boquet of flowers.

"It's beautiful," she said in a falsely sweet voice. Kurome said nothing, but he was looking at her strangely. He suddenly reached up, pressing her back against the wall. She dropped the flowers, her mind racing. _This guy sure jumps to things quickly_, she thought.

His arms wrapped around her thin waist, feeling warm on her cold skin as he leaned forwards slowly, tilting his head. She bit the capsule.

As his lips pressed onto hers and parted, she let a small amount of the liquid trickle into his mouth. The poison took a few moments to take affect as it finally trickled down the back of his throat. He suddenly cunvulsed, his eyes opening wide as he slipped to the floor silently, eyes still open.

Kurome spat out the rest of the poison onto his still face, wiping her lips in disgust. She moved into the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and rinsing out her mouth before placing the cup in the sink and leaving. That was the easy part.

It took her a moment to bring fake tears to her eyes as she dashed through the town, past the sushi bar where, sure enough, Saigo sat surrounded by girls. She caught his eye as she dashed towards the hotel, fake tears streaming down her face. The last thing she saw before she turned the corner was Saigo standing and pushing the girls around him away, dashing after her. She sped up.

Kumori burst through the Hotel's door, taking the stairs two at a time and entering the empty room. She had ordered her team mates to leave the room alone that night, but hadn't explained her plan to them. Sure enough, they had taken their things, and hers too as she had ordered, and left the building.

She curled up on her bed, burying her face in her arms and crying softly. It took only a few more moments for the door to her room to burst open, a panting Saigo stumbling in.

"Kiri, what happened!?"

She sniffled loudly, raising her head and seeing Saigo in his usual black outfit. She jumped up from the bed and ran towards him, wrapping her arms around her weakly, still shedding her fake tears.

"Kurome... there-there were people there with masks and... and he was on the ground in a puddle of blood..."

"Hunter-nin!? Shit..."

He kicked the door shut behind him, rocking her back and forth gently.

"Shh... It's alright. They won't come here," he whispered, his dark hair falling into her face.

She felt the nekote on her ring finger and made a quick slash on his neck. A small scratch that barely drew blood. It was all that was needed for the poison to take affect.

He cried out in pain, suddenly pushing her away and grabbing his neck. She tossed the nekote out the open window, backing away as he fell to the ground, still. She sighed, that hadn't been too hard.

She carefully stepped over his dead body, moving towards the door, but suddenly fell, pain shooting up through her ankle. As she hit the ground, she found her eyes on the same level as Saigo's which were burning in anger. He had cut her achilles tendon, stopping her completely.

She tried to push herself away, but he grabbed her left arm, slicing it open several times with a kunai. He suddenly stopped, crying out again as the poison began to kill him, but he wasn't done. With his last strength, he stabbed the kunai into her neck, narrowly missing a main artery before he fell completely still.

It took awhile for the new pain to sink in, and when it did, she cried out, ripping the kunai from her throat and throwing it across the room, falling back down. Saigo's chest was on top of her, his dead, sightless eyes staring angrily at her and his face still contorted in anger. She tried to move, but her entire right leg was useless from the severed tendon. She fell back, breathing heavily.

_Breathing heavily_? Fear suddenly hit her. Her forehead broke out in sweat as her breaths became raspy. She struggled to cry out again, but she broke out coughing instead. Looking down at her cut up arm, she saw the edges of the cuts fizzing slightly, small bubbles burning to the surface. She had been poisoned.


	6. 6

She didn't know how long she spent laying there, trying to control her lungs and slow the effects of the poison. It burned through her body, blocking all thoughts in her mind and causing her to break out in sweat. Blood trickled from her mouth from the wound in her neck as she stared blankly up at the ceiling, trying to deal with the pain.

The door to the room opened and Genma strolled in casually. "Are you done- Shit!"

He was there instantly, lifting her head and shaking her shoulders roughly, his toothpick flicking up in concern. He pushed Saigo's body off her to free her breathing slightly. She coughed up a small amount of blood.

"Kumori! What happened... Oh shit..."

"What is it, sensei?" asked Tsuno, peeking in as well. His face paled as he rushed in, followed by Hikari, and they knelt beside her as well.

"P-Poisoned," rasped Kumori, wincing in pain. There were raised voices from downstairs, and Genma's face paled further.

"We have to get out of here. Now. Hikari, take her out the window and meet me in the forest. Tsuno, come with me."

Genma and Tsuno dashed out of the room, back downstairs. Hikari lifted her gently, carrying her on his back and jumping out the window. Her muscles were screaming, burning with every faint heartbeat as her body struggled to fight off the poison.

Hikari dashed quickly from the village, back through the cave and out from the waterfall. He jumped the rock face, landing in a crouch in the trees and dashing forwards into the shadows. Actually, the sun had not yet set fully, but to Kumori, everything was dark.

They stopped after a few minutes in a small, secluded clearing. Hikari gently placed her on the ground, looking over her wounds before pulling his t-shirt off. His dark hair hung in his face as he silently tied the shirt around her upper body tightly, stopping her arm from bleeding. He cast around for more bandages, but found none and pressed his hands onto the wound on her neck instead, her blood flowing over his fingers and hands and dripping from his wrists.

She tried to steady her breathing, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth as steadily as she could, but it was useless when she began shaking, The poison was attacking her body viciously, and she guessed that had it not been for her built up tolerance and her clans tolerance for poison, she would be dead by now.

They remained like that for a few more minutes until Genma and Tsuno burst into the clearing, Tsuno carrying her backpack and limping, his ankles apperently broken. She struggled to sit up, but coughed up more blood and fell back onto Hikari.

Genma pulled bandages out of his bag, staunching the flow of blood from her neck before moving to her leg. It was bleeding, possibly, more than the wound on her neck, and the tendon was completely severed, leaving her leg limp. He bandaged it tightly, quickly stopping the bloodflow. Kumori's vision wavered and she manged to sit up, reaching for her bag silently. Tsuno handed it to her and she ripped it open, clumsily pulling the poison holster from it.

After a moment of struggling to open it, Genma pulled it open for her and she looked out at the selection of antidotes with her blurred vision. Which one is it? she thought vaguely. Her vision wavered again.

Fast acting, attacks nervous system, slow, strained breathing, slow, faint heartbeats, sweating, shaking... Some kind of animal poison... snake probably... Which one is it?

"Which one is it, Kumori!?"

"S-Snake.... Try... Try... Try G1..."

Genma scanned the holster along with Hikari, looking for the antidote.

"There," said Hikari, pulling out the antidote. He pulled out a syringe and held up the vial, pulling the needle's cover off and drawing the liquid into it. Remembering her words from before, he squirted off the first centimeter to rid it of any air bubbles. He undid his shirt from around her body, pulling out her uninjured arm and rubbing it below the elbow before shakily raising the needle.

Kumori winced as he carefully slid the needly into her skin, injecting it slowly before pulling it out and covering the place he had injected into. The affects were almost immediate, she stopped shaking and her breathing stabilized, but it was a general antidote. It covered all snake venoms roughly, prolonging the life of a patient unti they could get the proper antivenom.

Seeing her condition improve slightly, he retied his shirt around her body tightly and she winced. Her neck was sending sharp pangs of pain across her shoulders and causing a throbbing headache. Blood was still trickling from her mouth in a small rivulet, dripping from her cheek onto her neck.

"Why isn't it working?" asked Tsuno desperately. The pannick in his voice was evident.

"That was just a general antivenom for snakes," she whispered, finding she could speak more clearly now. "I still need to identify the specific snake it came from."

"How long are you going to last for?"

Genma's blunt question hit the other two team members hard, and they stared at him open mouthed.

"What do you mean 'last for'!?"

But to Kumori, it was a perfectly valid question. She let out a raspy sigh, thinking for a few moments.

"Considering my current symptoms and bloodloss... one day with regular doses of the antivenom, unless I find the snake it came from."

"One day!?"

"Shut up, Tsuno. You're too loud," said Hikari seriously. She silently thanked him for shutting up the loud gennin.

"Then we have to start running now to reach the Leaf in time. The medical-nin should be able to save you," said Genma, standing. Tsuno tried to stand as well, but his broken ankles gave out and he fell back. Shouri whined and nuzzled his head under one of Tsuno's arms.

"Hikari, you carry Kumori and I'll carry Tsuno," said Genma, pulling Tsuno up. Tsuno's face said he didn't want help, but he knew he would only slow them down if he moved on his own.

Hikari lifted Kumori with both arms, taking off after Genma. The muscles on his bare chest rippled as he jumped from tree to tree and held her up at the same time. Her breathing was shallow and strained, but there was less pain to deal with.

"...Hikari..."

"What?" he hissed, his attention turning toward her. She coughed and looked up at him.

"What does my face look like?"

"What!?"

"No... Like what colour is my skin... visible symptoms..."

"Oh... Your eyes are glazed over," he said, eyeing her intently. "your skin is paler than usual and your lips are blue."

Saying it outloud seemed to unnerve him even more, but Kumori wasn't paying attention.

"Breathing: shallow, strained; Heartbeat: faint, uneven; Sweating, shaking, blurred vision, all around pain, blue lips, glazed eyes, pale skin..."

"Stop talking, you'll wear yourself out," came Genma's voice in the darkness.

Fear struck her again. "Hikari... Quickly tell me what colour my blood is!"

Hikari lifted the bandages on her neck in confusion, obeying her. He suddenly froze. "It's... thick and dark, almost black..."

"Oh no... Put me down..."

Hikari pulled up, landing in a crouch in the clearing below, Genma landing beside him. Hikari placed her on the ground and she forced herself back into a sitting position.

"What is it?"

"I found out what poison he used, and I've decided I don't have as long to live as I first guessed," she said calmly. Her voice came easily now and her breathing was stabler, but the realization of what she had been poisoned with sent waves of fear washing through her body.

"And I left the anitvenene at home. In fact, you should remember me saying I didn't need it."

"Yeah, you said it was from a foreign species that you wouldn't encounter here."

"The common brown snake, one ounce of it's venom can kill 14,000 people easily."

"Then how do you counter it!?"

"The venom of this snake is possibly the scariest thing to me... It's properties are... unnatural. It contains neurotoxins that affect the nervous system, breathing and heart all at the same time. The venom contains three types of molecules: neurotoxic peptides which can cause death by asphixiation, relaxing the skeletal muscles around the lungs before paralyzing them; neurotoxic phospholipase A2's which destroy nerves; and prothrombin activators which affect the blood. The prothrombin activators are what you worry about, it basically stops bloodflow by turning your blood solid slowly, clotting it inside your body... I'll give my body three hours before it stops working completely."

"Phospholipase," said Tsuno, trying out the word.

"Pass me my backpack," she said. It was easier to speak now, not that that was a good thing. It meant her muscles were relaxing.

Hikari undid the shirt and she reached into her backpack pulling out her venom holster and opening it easily this time. She pulled out five separate needles and scanned her antidotes and antivenenes, selecting five, three different ones and the other two the same.

She injected a specific amount of each countervenom into her body, before breaking the tips of the syringes and throwing them aside. Without asking for help, she tied Hikari's shirt around only her arm this time, and he lifted her again, this time carrying her piggy-back as they dashed through the trees towards Konoha.

Hikari pulled her closer as he sped up, her bare stomach pressing on his back as he dodged through the trees. She felt her muscles completely give out as her mind began to slip away, and she nestled her head into his shoudler, closing her eyes. Hikari turned in suprise at the gesture, but returned his eyes to the path ahead.

"Keep her eyes open," ordered Genma. Hikari obeyed, jolting her out of her doze.She coughed up blood and let out a rattling breath, the poison was beginning to eat at her lungs again. The sun had begun to rise, and she recognized the forest around them to belong to the Fire country. They were nearing Konoha. Perhaps she would make it afterall.

A new wave of pain washed over her suddenly and she cried out softly, tears streaming down her cheeks against her will. Her head throbbed painfully before it passed and she relaxed slightly. Hikari turned his head in concern, and suddenly sped up, dashing at an almost impossible speed. He left Genma behind for a few moments until he managed to catch up to the gennin. She didn't know that Hikari had been so fast.

"Hikari," she whispered into his ear.

"We're almost there," he said.

"I have the only antivenene in the village for the brown snake, it's in my closet. It's labelled as Brown Snake, Common, AN2. It's the only way to stop the poison."

"I need to get you to the hospital though," he said. She managed to shake her head.

"Take me to my apartment first."

They left Genma and Tsuno behind again as the village gates loomed up before them. Hikari forced chakra to his feet and took off, launching himself into the air and landing on the wall before jumping down and dashing towards her apartment. The sun was almost fully up.

He practically knocked dow her door and placed her on the bed, dashing to the closet and emerging a few minutes later with a small vial in his hand. He moved his hand towards her backpack, but she reached up and stopped him.

"You don't know how to inject this type of antivenene properly, just bring it to the hospital. Tell them to administer it subcutaniously instead of intraveniously. Remember, sub-cu-tan-i-ous-ly."

"Subcutaniously," he repeated, pocketing the antivenene and lifting her again. As he dashed from the room, her body convulsed, her heart thumping irregularly for a few moments before relaxing. More blood trickled from her mouth as Hikari carried her towards the hospital as fast as he could, which was very fast.

They were there in a matter of minutes, bursting through the front doors and skidding to a halt in the lobby. There was a moment of silence before a group of medical-nin rushed over and took her from him. Hikari handed them the antivenene.

"She said to administer it subcutaniously instead of intraveniously," he said to the shinobi he handed it to.

"Why!? Brown snake antivenene?"

"I don't know! I'm not a poison expert!"

"No, he's right. In her condition, if you administer it with an I.V. it will have a greater chance of a brain hemmorage and death. Take her to emergency!"

Hikari watched helplessly as Kumori was placed on a stretcher and run through a pair of double doors by a group of medical-nin. He hesitated for a moment, glancing behind him, before dashing in after her and running up beside the stretcher.

"Hold this and make yourself useful," ordered a medical-nin. Hikari placed a hand over her breathing mask, still running to keep up with the stretcher. They entered a room crowded with various machines and one of the doctors administered the antivenom, quickly bandaging the place it had been injected. They didn't seem to notice Hikari holding onto the breathing mask as they rushed around the room.

Hikari suddenly reached down and grabbed Kumori's hand, squeezing it tightly. It was very cold and sent shivers up his spine. She opened her eyes, focusing as best she could on him, tears still streaming down her cheeks from pain. Her fingers twitched slightly and she weakly squeezed his hand, coughing a few times.

A medical-nin suddenly pushed Hikari back out the door, leaving Kumori alone in the cold, electrically lit room. She suddenly lurched, her stomach muscles contracting violently as she let out a loud scream, the venom taking full affect. Several doctors pushed her back onto the stretcher, calming her down.

Hikari heard the scream and tried to turn back into the room, but he was pushed out by a number of doctors.

"Kumori!"

He got no answer, but he picked out low moaning from withing the room. Fear washed over him, followed by deep concern. He tried again to get back into the room, but the doctors pushed him out roughly and slammed the doors shut, leaving him on the ground.

He stood and pressed his face up to the glass, but his vision was blocked by the throng of doctors around her. He raised his hands and made a few quick seals.

"Byakugan!"

He squinted through the doctors, finding Kumori's still form. His blood froze. There were two doctors performing CPR, pressing their palms violently into her chest and forcing her to breath. He saw one rubbing a defibrillator, the two metal pads used to shock the heart back into action, together. They pressed the instrument into her chest suddenly.

He watched helplessly as Kumori's thin frame jolted, twitching from the electric shock. They did this twice more, before the doctor in charge pointed to the door, directly at Hikari, and shouted something to a medicl-nin.

The medical-nin ran out the door, pushing it open and turning towards Hikari. He released his Byakugan, looking up at the medical-nin.

"What's going on!? What's happening to Kumori!?"

"Look, I need you to calm down. You need to tell us what happened. I'm not going to lie to you, Kumori is suffering from cardiac arrest. She has had a heart attack and we need to know exactly what drugs she took beforehand to reverse it. Think carefully, it's a life and death matter."

Hikari felt as if he were going to have a heart attack as well, his breathing sped up as he looked between the medical-nin and the emergency room. He took a deep breath to calm himself, not that it helped all that much.

"The first drug she took was an antivenene that covered all poisonous snakes, and that slowed the poison. It was labelled as G1."

"Good, now we know she took other drugs, so tell me about those."

"She said something about there being three types of molecules in Brown Snake venom, but she didn't have the antidote, so she took five other things which I don't remember. Three were different and the last two were the same. The ones that were the same were labelled as 'Anticoagulant AT.'"

The medical-nin's face paled considerably, he apperently knew something Hikari didn't. He looked as if he were going to pass out at any moment, but he quickly regained his senses.

"She took the double doses of the wrong antidote..."

"What's wrong now!?"

The medical-nin didn't respond, instead pushing the double doors apart and shouting over the commotion.

"It's a double dose of AT Anticoagulant! Stop that!" he barked a another group of medical-nin doing something to Kumori's breathing mask.

"Get a full list of antidotes! Now! And get that kid to remember, this girl's not gonna last very long even with that information," came a return shout. Another medical-nin burst out of the door, dashing down the hall and almost knocking the other medical-nin and Hikari over.

"Okay, listen kid. We need a full list of everything she took. Can you remember?"

Hikari desperately raked his memory, but was distracted by the shouts of the medical-nin inside of the emergency room. The medical-nin grabbed his still bare shoulders and pushed him against the wall, blocking his view of the room. He tore his eyes away and met those of the medical-nin.

"You have to remember... Anything, any small bit of writing you caught on the bottles. Anything she mentioned. Anything at all, no matter how insignificant it might seem to you."

"Ugh... I don't know! I can't remember!"

"Calm down and relax..."

Hikari sighed in frustration, sweat forming on his brow as he closed his eyes in concentration.

"Ugh... something about neurotoxins... neurotoxic petides or something... something activators and neurotoxic phosphi-something. I don't know!"

"Wait, she injected that into her body!?"

"No, that's what she said about the venom... she injected.. I remember... One of them, the first one was labelled as a polyvalent antivenin, another was neostigmine-"

"That's the word we were looking for. She's having an allergic reaction... This is bad."

He pushed back through the doors, shouting in at the doctors again. "It's an allergic reaction! She took Polyvalent Antivenin and Neostigmine, probably along with Antropine as well, but I'm not su-"

"Out of the way!!"

It didn't help Hikari to see the Hokage herself come dashing down the hall along with her assistant and the medical-nin who had come out of the room a few minutes ago. The Hokage burst through the door, glancing at Hikari before brushing past him.

_This is really bad_, he thought. Someone shouted again and that was too much for him as they pressed the shocking instrument into her chest. There was blood on the floor of the emergency room and on his own hands and body. Had he gotten here too late?

When the emergency room died down, the doctors going silent, some walking out slowly and shaking their heads, Hikari could take no more. He took one more look at the emergency room, before dashing down the hall to find his sensei. His hands were shaking and his knees felt weak as he ran into the lobby.

Genma was pacing the lobby, his arms crossed over his chest and his toothpick still. He noticed as Hikari dashed into the room, almost trippinf on the carpet as he skidded to a halt.

"Sensei!"

"Hikari, where's Kumori? Is she alright now?"

"I don't know what's going on... They put her in emergency and she had an allergic reaction and then a heart attack and-"

"Heart attack!?"

"Yeah, and they tried shocking her heart back... And they asked me about what she injected... And then-then the Hokage-sama herself went in."

"Geez," muttered Genma quietly. But the concern was evident on his face and his eyes darted to the hallway that led to emergency. Another group of medical-nin ran out of the hall, covered in blood that Hikari hoped belonged to someone else.

"I shoud have stopped her when she found out that Saigo was a poisons master as well. It was too much for her. If she dies..."

"Don't say that!" shouted Hikari suddenly. Genma turned back to him.

"You go home, I'm going to find out what's happening. I'll call you if anything happens, alright?"

Hikari only managed to nod. "How's Tsuno?" he asked, trying to tear his mind away from Kumori and her current state.

"He'll be fine. Go home and get some rest. And put on a shirt."

Hikari looked down and remembered his shirt was still tied around Kumori's arm. His chest was smeared with her bloody handprints, and he guessed that his back and shoulders had even more blood on them. He sivered before turning and striding out of the hospital as Genma dashed down the hospital hallway towards emergency.


	7. 7

Kumori awoke a few times only to be met with screaming, blinding, impossible, burning, endless pain. Once, she had heard Hikari call her name before she had fallen back into the darkness. Another time she had seen the Hokage standing over her along with several other medical-nin.

Once she had awoken in a large room with markings spread out around her and her hair loose. There were several people holding up their hands in seals around her in a circle, one of them being the Hokage herself. She had soon passed out from pain again though. This continued for what seemed to be years, years of endless pain that she could simply not deal with. For this, there was no antidote.

This time, she awoke and felt less pain, it was different than before. There was still a breathing mask over her mouth, but she was in a different room. Light poured in through a window, illuminating the entire room well. Her half-closed eyes darted to a weight on her bed and she saw Hikari passed out on his knees with his body resting across her legs.

She coughed lightly, shifting her eyes back and closing them again. That small movement caused Hikari's eyes to open sleepily and dart up to her face. When he saw her eyes were still closed, he pushed himself back onto his chair, looking at her face.

"What are you looking at?" she said quietly, her eyes opening again.

"You're awake!" He pulled his chair up closer, looking her in the eyes intently. He had bags under his eyes, which were bloodshot.

"You look tired," she stated simply, her voice sounding odd because of the breathing mask. She tried to move her arms, but her body wasn't responding at all.

"You had us all scared for a few days... The medical-nin were going to 'put you out of your suffering' but Genma argued with them for a long time, convincing them to keep trying. They said nobody should ever have to suffer that much... You know, you had two heart attacks."

She said nothing, shifting her eyes away and back up to the ceiling. She remembered the incredible pain of the first heart attack, she had never felt anything like that before. It felt like someone had ripped her chest open and thrown a bomb insode before burning it closed again. She had just been about to let herself go completely, until she heard Hikari call her name.

"They said you actually died and came back to life after the first one," said Hikari. She coughed lightly.

"I remember that... I heard you call my name and I opened my eyes again..."

There was silence as they simply sat together and enjoyed eachother's company. Kumori felt her eyes slipping shut again. She began recalling voices as she had been asleep.

_"You should really wake up soon, Kumori. Hikari is going crazy, he hasn't eaten for days or slept at all and he only leaves to go to the bathroom..."_

_"Please wake up, Kumori..."_

_"If you pull through, we all get promoted to chuunin. Wake up soon, Kumori!"_

_"You put me through hell, girl. I was up for hours last night filing more reports because of you. but if you make it through, your mission is a success and you pass to chuunin."_

_"Please..."_

_"The Hokage-sama says you should be fine by tomorrow, so just last 'till then."_

_"Tsuno is right, Hikari hasn't left this room for anything. We have to carry him home every time he falls asleep in this chair. He's losing alot of weight just sitting here and staring at you."_

_"I..."_

_"I can't believe you had an allergic reaction to one of your own antidotes!"_

_"This is getting serious, Hikari was actually hospitalized for a few days because of lack of food and sleep deprivation. If you don't wake up soon, he'll be in the same position as you."_

_"...love..."_

_"No, really, I can't believe you had an allergic reaction to your own medicine..."_

_"Hikari saved you... He managed to recall what you used on yourself and the medical-nin were able to reverse the affects."_

_"...you."_

_"I can't live without you."_

_"If you die now, I swear I'm going with you."_

_"Please wake up, Kumori... I can't see you like this..."_

_"I'll never let this happen ever again, I promise."_

_Hikari_, she thought vaguely. That had been Hikari's voice. She had heard him whisper things into her ear as she drifted through the darkness. He would talk for hours, until his voice gave out or until he fell asleep. She remembered every word he had whispered to her, begging her to wake up. She had even once felt tears running down her cheeks, his tears, burning down her face.

She remembered him brushing the hair from her face as he whispered in the darkness, his breath brushing her neck and ear. She shivered at the memory of his lips grazing her forehead, her cheek, her sealed eyelids. She even remembered hearing the voice of the nurse who had found him on the floor one morning, passed out and barely breathing. That must have been when they hospitalized him, she had felt lonely for the next three days. But his voice returned, breaking her silence, giving her something to think about, tearing her mind away from her dark thoughts.

It started again as she slipped away, except this time there was no words. She felt tears of joy splashing on her cheeks, running onto the pillows behind her. She shivered at his touch when he leaned over her, brushing the hair from her face and staying perfectly still for a moment. He leaned forwards and his lips brushed her cheek again as they had done so many times before, and she opened her eyes.

Her bandaged hands seemed to move this time as she met his eyes, one resting on the side of his face and the other pulling down her breathing mask. She tilted her head back slightly, ignoring the pain and keeping her eyes fixed on his as he leaned forwards again. His touch stole her breath away this time as his lips pressed into hers and she lay back on the pillows, relishing in the moment and hoping it would last forever. So sweet, so warm...

But it didn't. He pulled away and she closed her eyes, longing for more. He replaced her mask and leaned forwards, whispering into her ear, his breath brushing against her neck.

"I love you," he whispered, his hair brushing against her ear.

"I know," she whispered even quieter. "I love you too."

He remained for a moment before she felt her pillows rise and he lifted his weight from her bed, leaving the room of his own will for the first time in weeks.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He visited her every day until her condition began to improve, but he was soon called out on a mission. During the week and a half he was on the mission, Kumori had a relapse, plunging back into the darkness. When she finally recovered, she found Hikari had still not returned. The hospital was very quiet during the day, and she would simply stare up at the ceiling boredly.

The life support machines and breathing mask were no longer attached to her body, and she was free to walk around with crutches if she wanted to, but there was nothing to see within the hospital, so she never used them. She wore new hospital robes, a plain, loose black t-shirt and white shorts, and it was alot more comfortable than her previous hospital robes.

She sat in silence as usual, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about Akame and Hikari, wondering if both were alright. They had told her his mission would take a week and a half, it had been three weeks so far. She heard voices outside as someone moved towards her door, but she ignored them and kept her eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"Kumori?"

She sat up at the sound of Hikari's voice, turning her head towards where he stood in the doorway. He wore black pants and a white t-shirt underneath his chuunin vest, his right arm bandaged. She looked into his face as he stepped fully into the room and noticed a fresh scar running from his left eyebrow, over the bridge of his nose, and down onto his right cheek, an inch under his eye.

"I heard you had a relapse and I wanted to see you last week, but I got assigned another mission directly after I got back," he explained, taking his usual chair by her bed.

"What happened to your face?" she asked. His hand reached up and ran along the scar timidly, tracing the line's length before dropping back into his lap.

"Some of my team mates got taken hostage by a group of four Jounin and I was the only one left since we split into two groups. I had to go in by myself and fight them off to get to them."

"Four Jounin?"

He nodded. Kumori shivered slightly and looked out the window. It was now in the middle of winter here in Konoha, although you wouldn't be able to tell because of the sunshine and warmth.

"I still can't get over how warm your winters are... Right now, the Kumogakure is probably under a few feet of snow in the middle of a blizzard. It's so different here." _And I wonder how Akame is holding out..._

She sighed, her mind wandering back to her previous life in the Hidden Cloud. Her muscles still ached slightly, but the poison was almost completely out of her system.

"The doctor told me you are allowed to walk around the hospital... And I bet you're hungry. Do you want to go get something to eat?"

"But I'm only allowed inside the hospital," she replied. But she knew what he was saying. "Sure."

A moment later, she was clinging to Hikari's neck as he sneaked out of the hospital room, placing a 'Visitors' sign on the door before sneaking past a few nurses. He managed to sneak outside unnoticed as the secretary at the desk was busy writing something with her head lowered. Once outside, he slowed slightly, strolling through the town.

"What do you want to eat? Umm... Nothing too expensive though. My father kicked me out of the house and I have to pay my own rent."

"He kicked you out?"

"Well... Not exactly. It wasn't just him, the Main family... Well I did something I shouldn't have and I got a taste of the Juin before being banned from the house."

Kumori had heard of the Hyuga family and their curse, their Main family and Branch family splitting. She didn't understand it fully, but she knew enough from what Hikari had told her. She knew the severety of an act needed for the Main family to use the Branch family's curse seal against them as punishment.

"What happened?"

"...It's nothing..."

They stopped at the ramen bar, Hikari setting her down on one of the benches and ordering. She didn't really like ramen, but she hadn't eaten properly for awhile and it would probably taste alot better. Plus, it was with Hikari outside of the hospital, away from the strange cries and odd smells of the horrible building. She hated hospitals.

"How long until they let you out of the hospital?" asked Hikari, picking up his chopsticks and breaking them easily.

"It keeps changing... Some doctors said a week, others said a month, one even said I'm fine to go now, so I'm not sure..."

"There was something I wanted to talk to you about as well," he said quietly, eating a few noodles. She looked up from her meal, looking at his troubled face.

"Our whole team is now at the chuunin level, and chuunin is the first level in which we are able to apply for Anbu. But, Anbu entry missions are taken by groups of three or four. Tsuno and I wanted to become Anbu, and went to speak to the Hokage, and she said something about you. She said that we work well as a team, and that we should ask if you would take the entry mission along with us."

"What's the mission?"

"That's the thing I wondered about... We have another assasination that she said requires your knowledge of poison... But not only your knowledge of poison, your knowledge of the area."

"You mean..."

"We are being sent to the Hidden Cloud to assasinate the Raikage and another man of high stature to free their country from their rule. Yours is not the only account that has been reported of the numerous homeless children and families, and what's worse is the number had grown considerably."

_The Hidden Cloud... Is this my only chance to go back to my home? To go back for the reason of killing my Kage and a Cloud-nin?_

She dropped her head in silent thought, her eyes unfocused as she thought of one thing. "...Akame," she whispered. Hikari looked at her strangely.

"'Akame'?"

"...Nevermind. I'll go."

"Oh," he said, looking disappointed. "It's a really dangerous mission you know."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," she replied.

"Why?"

She considered his question for a few moments. "Because..." she had never told anyone about Akame before. "Because, like you said the first time we met, I left someone important behind. I don't even know if he's still alive. His name is Akame."

"... So you love him?"

The question was blunt, but not meant to be an accusation. She dropped her head, thinking. "Yes... no- I don't know. He probably hates me. I left him tied to a metal fence by a chain and a leather dog collar that his dad had left him with. His only source of food was from me and his cat, and I left without telling him, without even saying goodbye. Winter in Kumogakure is harsh, full of blizzards and ice storms, feet of snow, icicles and hail. Ninety percent of the homeless people die during winter, and on top of that, they have spring to go through after, full of floods and storms. A person anable to move because he is tied to a fence stands less chance than someone who can find shelter on their own."

Hikari said nothing, but turned back to his ramen, finishing it quickly. Kumori finished hers as well, resting her chopsticks on the edge of the bowl.

"Let's go," said Hikari. He lifted her from the bench and carried her away again. She was tired, and the warm sun added to her sleepiness, so she buried her face into his neck as she had done before, breathing in his scent and closing her eyes.

When she opened them again, it was considerably darker and colder out. She was sitting alone on a hill overlooking Konoha, the grass poking through her shorts and Hikari nowhere in sight. But she was reassured when she found his chuunin vest wrapped around her, keeping her warm. She pulled it closer, lookinf out at the setting sun and blinking sleepily. She pulled her knees up, her severed tendon twinging in protest as she rested her chin on her knees, burying her face into her bare arms.

Hikari appeared to her left, walking up the hill and carrying two drinks. He sat down beside her silently and handed her one. It was a warm cappucinio, and she wrapped her cold hands around it, the feeling returning. She sipped it timidly, watching as the sun set fully and resting her drink beside her.

As she watched the sun disappear, she realized she had never seen a sunset before. She had seen the light fade, the temperature drop, but never cleary seen one before.

"This is the first time I've ever seen the sun set," she whispered.

"Really? I guess you'll have to remember this time then," said Hikari. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulling her close, his warmth seeping into her. She closed her eyes and shivered before opening them and looking up at the sky. The stars were beginning to take over.

Hikari leaned back, laying on the grass and pulling Kumori down beside him so they could better see the stars. But she was tired and turned her head away from the stars, burying her face into his chest and closing her eyes. She wished life could always be so easy.

The last thing she remembered was Hikari brushing her hair out of her face again and pulling her closer. She nuzzled up closer to him, taking one last breath, breathing in his scent as her mind slipped away. She would always remember her first sunset.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You're free to leave whenever you wish, but I suggest you still use your crutches. These pills will help your muscle control that was affected because of the poison. Just take one per day in the morning."

The nurse placed the container of pills on her table and left the room. Hikari had been sent on another mission, and she had recovered almost fully. Her tendon had healed and the poison had been washed out of her system, allowing her to move freely. She glaced at the crutches leaning against the wall, slipping her feet from the bed and into a pair of sandals. She then moved over to the wardrobe on the other end of the room, quickly changing into her clean clothes.

She slipped on her chuunin vest over her black tanktop, admiring it for a few moments. The Hokage had presented it to her when it became positive she would pull through, bringing it to her room because she was unable to make her own way to her headquarters. But that wasn't what had suprised her.

The make of the vest was different from a normal chuunin vest. It was made from a strong, lightweight, black fabric with minimal padding allowing for maximum movement. The outside had many small, padded pockets with waterproof linings for holding poisons, and the inside had an added layer for warmth. It was also easy to slip on and off. The Godaime had told her that it would allow her to safely carry her poisons and easily keep track of them. She had also said it made full use of her bloodline, being easily slipped off in case of battle.

She stepped out of the room, limping slightly as she left her crutches behind. She headed directly for her apartment, the afternoon sun beating down on her. She couldn't belive how warm it was in the winter here. She saighed as she saw a paper taped to her door securely. It was an order list from the hospitla with a number of hard to make antidotes and antivenenes. She ripped it off roughly before stepping into her dark, messy apartment.

It was the way she had left it, with scrolls, containers and metal instruments covering evey surface. She closed the door bahind her and moved to the table, clumsily wiping the scrolls onto the floor and placing the order list in front of her.

Aoyari x1-$300, Physostigmine x3- $40, Calcium EDTA x5- $75... She scanned the next few orders before she reached the last one. At the bottom in large letters read 'BAL (dimercaprol) 200 mL - URGENT -'

She sighed, looking over the order again. It was barely enough to pay her rent for this last month, but she'd take it. She didn't feel like mixing the antidotes herself, so she simply moved to her closet, pulling out the correct vials and counting them up to make sure she had the right amount. She pulled her last vial of Aoyari antitoxin from the shelf, carrying it over to the table and setting down.

She counted and recounted it several times before filling out the form and pulling out a large carrying case. She organized the vials carefully, making sure they weren't going to touch eachother before placing the plastic lid over it and taping the filled out form to the top. She sighed, standing and heading out again, back to the hospital.

She gave the secretary the order and recieved her money in return, taking it back to her apartment and stashing it away before leaving again. She strolled towards the edge of the town, moving up to the hill where she had watched the sunset with Hikari a few weeks ago. She sat in silence, eventually closing her eyes and relishing the wind blowing around her. Her ears picked out every noise, the birdsong, leaves rustling, wind rushing through the grass, a dog barking... A dog barking?

She opened her eyes as two shapes darted across the grass below her. After them dashed two dogs, one soft brown and slightly larger than the other, who had creamy white fur. She recognized one to be Tsuno and the dark dog to be Shouri. Shouri suddenly stopped running and lifted his nose, panting before barking twice. Tsuno turned his head up the hill, noticing Kumori. His smile grew wider and he changed directions, dashing up the hill at high speed. Just before he reached her, the other dog grabbed his ankle, tripping him and causing him to fall face-first into the grass at her feet.

"Ow... Hey, I wasn't ready!"

"Too bad, you let your guard down!" shouted the other boy, coming up behind him and sitting on his back, pinning him to the ground.

He made a quick movement, and was suddenly switched with the other boy, sitting on him instead. He had moved too quickly for Kumori to see. The boy with him was a gennin and wore no chuunin vest, unlike Tsuno.

"Hey, Kumori," he said casually, grinding the other boy's head into the dirt. He growled animal-like.

"This is my cousin, Kiba," he explained. Kiba tried to execute the same move Tsuno had, but it ended with both of them on the ground. Their dogs barked a few times.

"I heard you accepted the Anbu entrance mission with me and Hikari. It's not gonna be easy to get this job done," he said, sitting up.

"...Yeah," she said, looking past him down at the village. Kiba eyed her for a moment, before turning and whacking Tsuno in the head painfully.

"Hey... You said you'd teach me today,' he complained. Tsuno rubbed the back of his head.

"But I-"

Kiba grabbed his arm suddenly, dragging him back down the hill.

"Uhh... I gotta go now... Bye!"

She watched in silence as Kiba dragged him back into the trees, their dogs dashing after them. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and Kumori stood, glancing northeast, the direction of her former village. She sighed, wondering about the upcoming mission before turning back down the hill and heading back to her apartment.


	8. 8

Kumori stood to attention in front of the Hokage and a small group of jounins. Hikari and Tsuno stood beside her as well, each in a provided Anbu uniform and wearing an Anbu mask. She carried a medium sized pouch of poisons and medical supplies around her waist, she would be acting as the medical-nin for their team as well.

She had tied her hair back again, but no matter what she did, there were always strands hanging annoyingly in her eyes that she had to flick away every few minutes. She had spent the last month making a completely new set of improved poisons and counterpoisons, giving herself an entirely new arsenal. And on top of that, she had finally mastered the seventh and final dance of her clan, making her a formidable opponent. She listened vaguely to the Hokage, but not many words registered because she had spent last night poisoning her weapons and mixing more, causing her brain to slow down from lack of sleep.

"...And his right hand man, an unnamed deadly assasin. He specializes in ninjutsu, apperently knowing over a thousand. He is also rumoured to have high intelligence, using every advantage he had at the precise moment and quickly devising complicated strategies.

"He will be the bigger problem for you three, and should you kill the Raikage before you deal with him, he will rise to the position quickly. I will warn you now, this man is twice as dangerous as the Raikage will ever be. His skills are uncanny, and what makes him more dangerous is he is completely and flawlessly loyal to the Raikage, ensuring he will not betray his country.'

With her last words, her eyes fell onto Kumori and she winced at the words. _I didn't betray my country_, she thought, _I was forced to leave or face death_.

"The Lightning country has already taken many of our Anbu hostage, although they have probably died by now. They might have already caught wind of our plans, but I trust you to deal with any problems you might encounter."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," they said as one, still standing to attention. She looked for a moment as if she were about to send them off, but she opened her mouth again.

"And Kumori," Kumori shifted at the change in her voice. It had become softer. "It is improtant that you remember the purpose of the mission and not to be distracted by anything personel. You are needed to navigate for your team, and if you let them down it will be their lives. Remember, you are a Leaf-nin and are now loyal to the Leaf."

Under her mask, Kumori's face was troubled, but luckily the Hokage couldn't see. "...Yes, hokage-sama..."

"It is important you remember your mission, Kumori. When I said I trust you, I meant all of you, including you, so don't let me down."

"...Yes, Hokage-sama," she replied in her usual quiet voice. The Hokage held her gaze for few moments, before raising a hand and dismissing them. Kumori turned as the two other Anbu vanished, along with Shouri. She remained for a moment, turnig to look back at the Hokage. Her relationship towards the Godaime of the Leaf was nothing close to what she had had between her and the Rokudaime of the Lightning. But she felt the weight of responsibility pressing on her shoulders in a familiar way, and she accepted her loyalty with the Fire country, vanishing as well.

They dashed through the forests of Konoha, through the shadows of the early morning. The sun had not yet risen, but there was light enough for them to see the path. Kumori looked around at her team mates. To her suprise, Tsuno had been the one chosen to lead the mission.

They each carried a small bag over their shoulders containing a small amount of food, water, a few other suplies and a brown Anbu cloak. She wondered if the thin cloak would be enough to prepare them for the harsh weather of the Hidden Cloud, and had brought it up with the Hokage. But no one seemed to understand her when she explained the usual winter conditions. That was to be expected from people who had never felt snow on theri faces. Not soft, fluffy, cool, white, melty snow; harsh, stinging, slicing, biting, scraping icicles that were blown into your skin, cutting it as easily as blades of pure chakra.

Kumori dashed from branch to branch as Tsuno navigated at the head in silence. Her mind was wandering, and as she landed on the next moss-covered branch, her foot skidded slightly, throwing her off balance. She managed to grab the branch on her way down, dngling there for a few moments before pulling herself slowly up. Her mind was working at an impossible slow pace and it was getting hard to keep her eyes open. She coughed a few times.

"Are you alright?" asked Tsuno, landing on a branch and looking back. She considered asking for a small break, but shrugged it off.

"I'm fine," she said, standing. Tsuno eyed her for a few more seconds before continuing on, weaving through the trees northeast. They would reach the Sound country by nightfall, and their guard would go up. The country was an enemy of Konoha full of strange and powerful shinobi.

They entered the borders of the new country at sunset, and by then Kumori had slipped countless times. They paused on a tree, looking around and scanning the terrain. Kumori's eyelids were unbearably heavy now, and as she let them slip shut, she felt her legs give out. She managed to snap back to reality before she fell from the branch though, digging a cold hand into the bark of the tree.

"This is the hundredth time, Kumori. What's wrong?" asked Tsuno, eyeing her again.

"I already said, It's nothing. Let's keep moving," she said.

"If you want to take a break, we can stop. You need to take care of yourself."

"Okay, mom. I said I'm fine," she replied sarcastically, perhaps more so than she intended. She was tired of them asking her everytime they saw her stumble. Tsuno looked at her for a few more moments before taking off again followed by Hikari.

She was about to follow them, but something caught her eye, glimmering ever so slightly in the remaining sunlight. Before she could call out, Hikari and Tsuno, along with Shouri, were all frozen in their tracks. She darted behind a tree, biting her lip as she watched in silence. They were trapped in genjutsu.

She watched as six shadows appeared from the trees, surrounding the frozen chuunin and speaking quietly. There were two Sound-nin holding the genjutsu together, working hard to keep it up. Shouri whimpered as Tsuno cried out suddenly and blood trickled from Hikari's mouth as he bit his tongue to stop himself from shouting.

_That pain should be enough to break the jutsu_, she thought, watching as his blood splashed onto the forest floor. She watched in horror as they were brought to their knees in pain, the surrounding Sound-nin speaking quietly. One of them broke apart from the group, a messenger, and headed straight for her hiding spot. She pulled off her Anbu glove and readied herself.

As the Sound-nin dashed towards her current position, she jumped out in front of him, her bones breaking her skin and forming a large point of bone. She plunged it directly into his stomach, killing him insantly and in complete silence. But something worse happened. The five remaining Sound-nin were soon joined by six others, making her wonder how many there actually were roaming these woods. Hikari grunted in pain and one of the Sound-nin laughed cruelly, manipulating the jutsu.

She pulled the bone painfully back into her arm, wincing and letting the body slip to the ground. She bit her lip as she tried to think of some way to deal with the situation. But she was sleep deprived and her mind wasn't working at all. She decided she could take them all on with a powerful dance.

She silently pulled off her long gloves and arm guards, before pulling the white, padded chest plate off as well, leaving her in her normal, small black tank top. She sighed inwardly, struggling to keep her eyes open and concentrate.

She took a deep breath and plunged into the clearing, whirling around quickly and entering her modified Kaguya fighting stance. "Karamatsu no Mai!"

The sound-nin charged her, but her dance was more advanced this time. She twirled left quickly, bones splitting from the back of her neck and her arms. The first ninja was impaled on a bone protruding from her elbow and she flung the body across the clearing, facing the other ninja.

"Just like Kimimaro-sama!"

Her blood froze and she let down her guard for a moment, the name of the one she had been fated to marry hitting her hard. But in battle, you can never let down your guard. A kunai grazed her neck, splitting the skin slightly and drawing blood. Another connected wth her shoulder, but luckily her bone armour prevented any serious damage. The Sound-nin were keeping their distance, they knew her fighting style. Another messenger edged away from the group, but she could not let word of her escape.

"Tenshi Sendan!"

The tips of her fingers exploded open, sending small droplets of blood flying into her face as ten spinning bone bullets shot towards the escaping ninja. He took three to the neck, stumbling but managing to continue runnig, vanishing into the shadows. She swore under her breath as the remaining nine shinobi encircled her and Tsuno cried out in pain again. She knew what she would have to use to defeat them.

She hesitated for only a moment before drawing her bones in and shouting "Sawarabi no Mai!"

It took her tired body a moment to react to the dangerous jutsu, but she grunted in pain as it took affect. Bones split from every inch of her body, tearing her pant legs and sending droplets of blood flying everywhere. Her body was sucked underground, into the dark, damp soil, although it never actually touched her skin. She tried to cry out as bone spikes shot up aaround her, up through the ground, impaling all nine of them instantaniously but leaving a clearing around Hikari, Tsuno and Shouri.

She hated this dance, not the most of her dances, but as second. It was by far the most painful and put the most strain on her body. She had modified it to use less force than the original, which also meant it left her clothes mainly intact, although the bottoms of her pants were torn hopelessly. The forest of bone spikes slowly faded, returning into her body as blood leaked down from every cut. She stood panting in the forest, the darkness finally taking over fully.

She fought off the side affects, turning towards Hikari and Tsuno. They were unconcious, blood leaking from their mouths. But I never touched them with the dance, she thought. There were no wounds outside of theri bodies, but blood was leaking from their mouths. The genjutsu had done somethinf to them Shouri seemed fine, and was nuzzling Tsuno, whimpering faintly. She stumbled over to them, this forest was not safe to stay in, she had to get them away.

"Shouri, can you carry Tsuno?"

The dog barked softly, and hoisted his body across the dog's back. It was a good thing Shouri had grow considerably from the size he had been before, he was now quite large and well muscled. Her body moaned in protest as she pulled Hikari's arm around her neck, lifting him from the ground. She took to the trees again, moving as quickly as her body would allow and followed by Shouri carrying Tsuno.

She struggled through the forest all night, as alert as she would ever be in her condition. Judging by the landscape, she guessed she had passed through the Sound country. It was afternoon now, and the temperature had dropped considerably. She didn't know how much longer she could keep her eyes open, but she needed to keep watch.

Laying the bodies down under the bank of a small stream, she watched warily, Shouri nipping her every time she began to doze off. She needed no awakening though, because as soon as the affects of using her bloodline hit her, she was fighting for her breath.

She threw her head back against the clay bank, refusing to cry out as pain erupted through her body, burning across her skin as it healed the wounds made from using the Dance of the Early Braken. Her sandals dug into the sand, pushing her against the wall as she clutched her stomach, her body wanting to bend backwards and curl up at the same time. The attack soon passed, but she knew she would be constantly having them until sunset. She hoped Hikari and Tsuno would wake up soon.

She took a deep breath and stood, moving to the streamside and removing her sandals. One way to ease the pain was the cold, and this water was like ice to her. She slid her body, clothes and all, under the surface, moaning gently as her blood slowed. She threw her mask onto the bank so she could dunk her head under fully, holding her breath for at least a minute before breaking the surface again, her body numbed.

She pulled herself out of the water after a few minutes, moving her mask and sandals over to the streambank and pulling Hikari and Tsuno closer under the bank. She opened their bags, pulling out their cloaks along with her own. She rolled hers up into a pillow, resting both of their heads on it before slipping their own cloaks over their bodies as blankets. She placed herself outside of the overhanging bank, bringing her knees up and resting her head in her arms. Shouri curled up around her, his warm body feeling hot on her skin.

She had two more attacks as the sun began to set again, until her body could no longer bear to continue functioning. As another wave of pain washed over her, she finally gave into it, letting her eyes slip shut. She slumped over, her body shutting down as she lay on Shouri, shivering as night set in. Her eyelids were unbearible heavy and her limbs didn't respond, they were completely numb from the freezing cold. She shivered once before passing out, as unconcious as her team mates.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kumori moaned inwardly, her muscles sore from leaning against the clay bank. Someone had covered her with a cloak and moved her under the shelter for a good reason. It had apperently poured rain, the small stream overflowing and water running down from the bank above. The rain had let up slightly, now a steady drizzle, but the temperature had dropped.

Beside her slept Hikari, under his own cloak, and Tsuno was nowhere to be found. She shivered, sneezing twice and squeezing her eyes shut again. She was very cold, and was shaking all over, apperently having caught a cold.

"You're finally up?" She lifted her head to see Tsuno head pop over the edge of the bank, hanging upside down and dripping wet. He wore no Anbu mask, but he had his cloak's hood up, not that it helped much. Hikari shifted, waking at the sound of Tsuno's voice.

"Are you guys alright? You were unconcious before," she asked, looking them over. They glanced at eachother for a moment in silence.

"...Yeah," said Tsuno. He flipped down form the bank, landing in a crouch and sending droplets of water flying onto them as he shook his head, his hood flying off and his hair springing back into place. His gel had worn out long ago, but his hair seemed used to its usual spiked position.

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion at their silence, but shrugged it off. Tsuno yawned, stepping further under the shelter and pushing Hikari from his resting spot.

"We should get going, you've been asleep for awhile... By the way, what happened when we were trapped?"

"I killed the Sound-nin that attacked and carried you over here," she said simply, remembering the mention of Kimimaro. She shivered, not from the cold, thinking of the dangerous Kaguya, the way he would stare at her with his cold green eyes. Although they were the same colour, their eyes were much different. Hers were sharp and keen most of the time, although they were constantly wandering off in thought. His, however, were cold and unnerving, staring you down with cold fury. She hated those eyes.

"Oh... Thanks. I didn't sense them. Are you alright to move?" he asked. She noticed him glance at her legs and remembered her ripped pants. She pulled her legs closer and ran her hands down them, feeling the hopelessly torn fabric. She reached into her bag and pulled out a few bandages, quicly bandaging the bottoms of her legs so she wouldn't trip on the shredded pants bottoms.

Her head throobed painfully as she continued shivering, pulling on her sandals and lifting her Anbu mask, replacing it quickly to hide her pained face. She was tired of her team mates worrying about her constantly. Holding back another sneeze, she crawled from under the shelter, grabbing her bag and shouldered it. Tsuno emerged after her, followed by Hikari and they turned northeast again, pausing for a few moments.

"Maybe we should wait out this storm. It's getting pretty bad," said Hikari as thunder rolled in the distance.

"This is nothing. We should take the oportunity of easy travelling now, while are still free of frostbite," said Kumori sarcastically, still shaking.

"I'll take your word for it," said Tsuno. He crouched low before dashing forwards, running along the bank for a few moments before jumping into the forest. Kumori followed along with Ken, their eyes darting around for any signs of the enemy, Sound-nin or Cloud-nin.

The weather conditions slowly declined, until, when night approached again, it began hailing. The balls of ice were large, about the size of large marbles, and hurt considerably. They continued on through the night after making sure they were able to continue on safely. But the further north they moved, the worse the weather got.

After the hail, there came a large thunderstorm with pouring rain and harsh winds. The two males seemed drawn back at these conditions, but Kumori felt perfectly at home. She never once slipped on a sheet of ice or sunk to her knees in mud. She tried to teach them how to travel easily against the icy winds and how to keep themselves as warm as possible, but they were struggling considerably and she noticed easily.

They would be fine one moment, jumping through a clearing or small field, but the next they would be huddled on the ground, frantically trying to find some way to warm their bodies. Kumori was worst off, her cold growing worse. She had a high fever, but said nothing to either of her team mates. She had the least dirt on her, having only slipped once, unlike Hikari and Tsuno. Hikari was drenched after falling into a hidden pond, Tsuno having to haul him out and almost falling in as well. Tsuno, on the other hand, had gotten stuck in a mud pit at the edge of a small swamp. As he sunk, Kumori yelling instructions angrily at him, he finally got out, Shouri pulling him roughly out onto the ground.

Kumori's head was really throbbing now, but she felt at home for the first time in a year and a half. To her, the raging winds and freezing cold was what she was used to, what she had grown up with, what she preferred to the steamy, hot Konoha weather.

"We should set up camp," said Tsuno, breathing heavily. This time, she said nothing, quickly finding the best place to stay. There was no place to stay. They were surrounded by trees on one side, a swamp behind them and open fields before them. Tsuno led them to a slightly more covered area in the forest, only slightly, and she leaned against a tree, slumping to the ground in relief. She wasn't sleepy at all, but her legs ached and her cold was starting to eat at her patience.

"I'll take first watch," she announced, shivering violently. Hikari and Tsuno seemed relived, curling up against a tree and pulling their cloaks around them. They removed their masks, Kumori noticing the scar across Hikari's face had not healed in the slightest, and pulled up their hoods further, hiding their faces. She stood, jumping up onto a nearby tree sitting up against the trunk, watching warily as their surroundings slowly darkened.

The rain seemed to slow slightly, allowing a gap of calm in which her fever shot up. Her head spun slightly and she pulled off her mask, letting the air cool her burning skin. She suffered in silence, her eyes ever alert and darting from shadow to shadow at the slightest noise. She remained awake until around midnight, when she felt a soft whoosh of air beside her.

"You should get some rest," said Hikari, crouching beside her. She sneezed a few times, pushing herself up. She was still shaking uncontrollably.

"Are you alright?" he asked, eyeing her.

"Fine," she replied curtly. But he lifted his gloved hand, pulling off the black covering and gently brushing his fingers across her cheek. She shivered at his touch, so cold. It sent shivers down her spine; she knew the fever was bad.

"Your so hot," he said. He suddenly pulled back his hand. "I mean, uh... you have a bad fever," he said quickly. She smiled slightly, pulling away.

"I'll be fine by tomorrow. This weather suits me perfectly, once we arrive I'll feel much better," she reassured him. He leaned forwards slightly, but she pulled away suddenly, shying away from him. Glancing once at him, she dropped from the branch, landing in a crouch and moving towards another tree, curling up tightly.

_It is improtant that you remember the purpose of the mission and not to be distracted by anything personel_, she thought, remembering the Hokage's words to her. She closed her eyes, shutting out the world with suffocating darkness. It wasn't that in which she was worrying about, it was Akame. Always Akame. Up until this mission, her life had revolved around her promise to him, to become stronger and return for him. But she had been having doubts lately.


	9. 9

"Look at how thick that mist is," said Hikari. Thery were crouched in a stand of trees, looking out at the Hidden Cloud which, at the moment, was completely shrouded in mist. Kumori's lips turned up slightly in a small grin, they were so clueless.

"That's not mist, it appears Kumogakure is currently in the middle of an ice storm," she said quietly. The two other chuunins had had gotten their first taste of snow and the biting cold that came with it yesterday. They had enjoyed it for a few hours, but it soon became a large problem. The mention of one of Kumogakure's famous Ice storms somehow didn't seem to raise their spirits.

"Another storm?" complained Tsuno. He leaned forwards, squinting hoplessly into the swirling, solid wall of whiteness before closing his eyes to shield against the brightness.

"It won't be so easy to get into the village from here on, so you should lead, Kumori," said Tsuno, turning back to her. She nodded, remaining in a crouch for a moment before standing.

"Alright. The easiest way is straight through, head on. I'll lead, followed by Hikari who should use the Byakugan to scout for any enemies. Tsuno and Shouri should bring up the rear, making sure to be in contact with Hikari at all times. You're senses are sharper than mine or Hikari's, so the storm will affect you the most."

She held out a hand to Hikari, pulling him up and looking out at her former village. It felt good to be back at Kumogakure. She remained lost in thought for a moment, her face hidden by her Anbu mask, before she dashed forwards, pulling Hikari with her as she charged to wall of ice.

It was painful breaking the barrier of spinning ice shards. She entered by shouldering her way through, the cloak not doing much to keep the cold out. It was almost the same as hitting a solid wall, but it gave out quickly and she plunged into the blinding white, ice cutting at the exposed parts of her body. It sliced her neck, blowing into her cloak and cutting her shoulders as well. It even managed to spin up into her mask, obscuring her vision even more and making it difficult to breath.

But her body quickly adapted, falling back into it's usual rhythm, her heart speeding up to pump blood throughout her body faster and warm her. The other two chuunin were having slightly more trouble, although they didn't trip and fall, it was obvious they could barely see and breathe. She continued at the same speed, charging blindly through the snow in a memorized path. She had often gone on missions outside of the village and it was required to pass the acadamy that you knew how to return to the village in the worst of storms.

"Scouting party ahead!" hissed Hikari, forcing out air from his frozen lungs. She suddenly dropped to the ground, taking Hikari and Tsuno with her, Shouri flopping down in silence as well. She began making a long series of seals, releasing Hikari's hand and concentrating.

"Shuu Yuki no Heigai!"

The snow around them was suddenly thrown violently aside as a grey, slightly translucent barrier unfolded around the three chuunins and the dog. It blocked out the sound of the snow, the cold and the burning ice shards, but left them able to hear the soft footsteps of four Kumo jounins scouting the area.

"They can't hear us at all from here, so there's no need to hold your breath," she said to Tsuno.

'I wasn't holding it, my body went into shock from suddenly being able to breathe properly," he said sarcastically. She snorted, turning back to the four jounins.

"I heard it over there," said one, dressed in Medical-nin clothes of the Hidden Cloud. The medical-nin of her former village had different uniforms than the leaf-nin. It consisted of a deep, navy-blue suit with a white cross on the chest and a badge on their left sleeve, on the shoulder, depicting a bolt of lightning backed by a dark grey, almost black, cloud. The three seemed as oblivious to the storm as Kumori was, and it was then that it became apperent to Tsuno and Hikari that Kumori was tougher than they had forst thought.

The Cloud-nin stood in silence, ready for an attack as they eyed their white surroundings. One of them broke apart from the group, taking a few steps forward and stopping feet from where they were hidden by Kumori's barrier jutsu.

"There's no one here," he announced. He wore a Kumo jounin vest. The Cloud's vests also differed from the leaf's, coming in three solours: dark blue, dark grey and white. Dark blue for spring, dark grey to match summer and fall storms, and white for the blizzards in winter. Their scrolls holsters were also horizontal unlike the vertical Konoha ones, and the vest was overall more padded for warmth, and waterproofed.

"The Raikage-sama will be angry if someone else manages to enter the village. Those Anbu still haven't started talking yet, he said he'll get Him to kill them tonight if they don't give him some info. We don't even know which village their from, though he suspects either the Leaf or the Stone. They can't be Sand-nin because they wouldn't last three seconds."

She listened as one of the other jounin, also in a white vest and white pants, complained to the one closest to them.

"There are Anbu still alive!? We have to get them out before they're killed or they give away any information," said Tsuno seriously.

"Are you saying us three versus four Cloud jounin?" asked Hikari. She could tell he was grinning under his mask.

"We have no choice," said Tsuno, shifting. "The three of us versus them. Me, You and Shouri."

"What?" asked Kumori. She was being left out again.

"We need someone to stay behind and hide in case something goes wrong. Your the one who can hold up this barrier, and on top of thet, you're the medical-nin for our team," explained Tsuno. She said nothing to this, but her face darkened slightly under the mask.

"Are you going to kill them?" she asked finally, turning to Tsuno. He looked out from the barrier, watching as the jounins lingered, still looking for them.

"It depends. If they agree to speak, we won't need to. But if they resist, we will act in self defense."

"Don't kill the medical-nin, he doesn't deserve it. He's only here to look out for the others," she said quietly.

"If he resists, we will have no choice. Let us out the back," he ordered emotionlessly. She rarely heard him being this serious. Kumori shifted, letting the back of the barrier break. The storm had let up momentarily, the winds dying down slightly, but she knew it wouldn't last long. Shouri creeped through the barrier, followed by Tsuno and Hikari. She closed it and watched as they confronted the Jounin.

"More Anbu!?"

Shouri growled dangerously, his hackles raised and his sharp fangs bared wolf-like as he took a step towards the Jounin. The wind kicked up again, swirling harmlessly for a moment before growing to full force, whipping ice around violently. She listened as Hikari tried to talk the information out of them. He had a silver tongue, but in their current position, it would be impossiblee to get information from the Kumo jounins.

She caught a glimpse of Shouri snarling, saliva flying from his mouth as he and Tsuno charged the first jounin, Shouri taking the same shape as Tsuno as they spun towards him at a high speed, senging ice flying everywhere.

As Tsuno and shouri fought the first two shinobi, Hikari faced the other two, the medical-nin stepping forwards and holding up his hands in an odd stance. It took Kumori a moment for the stance to register in her mind as one of Kumgakure's most dangerous fighting styles, and she bit her lip, hoping hikari would be alright.

He fell into a fighting stance she had never seen before and she remembered it eventually. It was the fighting style of the Main family, she had seen his younger cousin Neji use in a fight with him. She had been afraid of Neji, his talent was unnatural, he had learned the Main family's jutsus by himself. She knew Hikari was also a genious, he had mastered a few techniques himself, but she had never seen him use this style before.

She watched in silence as Tsuno and Shouri beat one of the Jounin int a snowdrift, taking on the other with full force. Hikari was using the Hyuga style taijutsu against the other jounin, but the medical-nin was still standing in the same stance, either building up for an attack or thinking up a plan. His stance was beginning to eat at her, she hadn't known they would encounter one to use that style, and she worried hikari wouldn't be good enough to deal with it.

The medical-nin suddenly took a step forwards, pulling a katana seemingly made from light itself from no where and charging forwards. Fear flashed through Kumori's mind, she recognized the attack. Throwing her cloak off, she broke through the barrier, charging to intercept the jounin before he reached Hikari, who was still occupied with the other jounin. She skidded to a halt, her Anbu mask doing little to protect her from the storm as she pulled out her Sword of Bone from her shoulder, shifting in front of Hikari and bringing it up.

She grunted under the impact of the powerful blade making contact with her bone blade and her knees almost buckled as she absorbed the shock, bending backwards slightly. The light katana had dug almost halfway through her blade, which was almost impossible since it was stronger than steel. There was a moment of silence as the medical-nin stared in amazement at her, suddenly jumping back along with the other two remaining jounins. They were all staring in shock at her.

"Why did you break cover!?" hissed Hikari, breathing heavily. The snow died down again as the three chuunin and Shouri faced the Kumo shinobi, catching their breath.

"It's her... That demon the Rokudaime called her bodyguard," muttered the medical-nin, shifting anxiously.

"Kumori-sama? I thought she was killed on the streets," said another._ Great_, she thought, _they know who I am now. I can't let them escape. _But they seemed to have no intentions of running.

"What are you doing here, demon?" hissed the medical-nin, cocking his light katana.

"I am not a demon," she hissed back, her voice low and dangerous.

"You can't deny it. You're a monster. You ended so many innocent lives without feeling any emotion whatsoever. I remember what the Rokudaime used you for. It was a bad influence for her to take you in and train you like that, she was a horrible ruler. I'm glad she's gone, she was nothing but trouble for this village," said one of the jounin. Kumori felt anger burning inside of her, bursting from her.

"I won't allow you to speak of the Lady Raikage like that! The state of this village has only worstened since she passed away!"

"It doesn't matter. You are a missing-nin from our village," said the medical-nin.

"Wh-what!? Missing-nin!?" she said, her voice catching. She hadn't thought her absence would be acknowledged. The only person she had thought had known of her was Akame.

"In fact, you are an S-ranked missing-nin, a top priority for our hunter-nin to find and destroy. They have been looking for you for a long time, ever since you first betrayed your village. Tell me, what village has been cursed with you now, Kumori-sama?"

The words stung her more than the ice whipping around her, and she bit down hard on her tongue to avoid another outburst. "I'll kill you," she said. She hadn't used this voice for years and years, not since she had fought for the Raikage.

"I'll rip you to shreds. I'll stain the snow red with your insides and watch as you slowly bleed to death, begging me for mercy, begging me to end your worthless lives. It is you who is betraying your village," she growled out, taking a step forwards. She grabbed the ends of the bandages on her lower legs, ripping them off and setting her Kaguya fighting stance. The medical-nin seemed to hesitate.

"I don't stand a chance against you, so why bother?" asked the medical-nin, eyeing her mask.

"Because I don't like you and I want to kill you," she said. Her old personality was returning, and it felt good to get angry. he flinched at her blunt words, but his face broke into a smile.

"If you must. I will die for the Raikage-sama. We will all give our lives gladly for him," he said simply. His foot connected with the ground as he shot towards her, his katana raised. Hikari engaged with the other jounin and Shouri and Tsuno took the last one, all plunging wildly into battle.

"Tsukimisou no Mai!" she screeched wildly. Long, thin spines shot from under her skin, rising a few feet into the air. They were thinner than in her other dances, fragile but incredibly sharp. Her green eyes blazed as she met the medical-nin, clashing. His katana sliced easily through her spines, but this was one of her more powerful dances, and it was meant to make the enemy let down his guard. Which is exactly what the medical-nin did.

But her transformation was not yet complete. Her hands grew into long, boney claws with unimaginably sharp points and more spines grew along her backbone, one from each vertebrae, stretching out dangerously behind her. She heard Tsuno's opponent fall, crying out before he silenced him, and she decided to finish up with hers as well.

She bit her lip, executing a perfect backflip and twisting into an ackward position, catching her opponent off guard. She grinned at the fear that flashed through his eyes when she suddenly disappeared in a gust of snow.

"Over here," she whispered. He spun around, but it was too late. A moment later, he was writhing on the ground, his eyes gouged out and his blood pouring into the snow. She watched for a moment emotionlessly from behind her mask,

"Demon!" he screamed, writhing and clutching his face. "You're just a monster! Hellspawn!" a string of curses erupted from his mouth, not losing any of their energy as she had hoped and only seving to anger her more. She pulled her spined back into her body, her own blood mixing with his in the snow. Hikari had apperently dealt with his opponent as well, and approached her.

"Are you alright, Kumori?" he said cautiously. Under her mask, her face was contorted with emotion; anger, sorrow, pain, disgust for the Cloud-nin and a desire to kill. But it vanished at the sound of his voice.

"Fine," she said, turning away and facing away from the still writhing and cursing medical-nin.

"Aren't you going to finish up?" asked Tsuno, looking down at the Cloud-nin. She paused for a moment, thinking before kneeling down beside him.

A bone broke the skin of her palm, stretching to within inches of his heart. She slowly slid it in and listened emotionlessly as he cried out for mercy, blood covering his hands and face from his gouged out eyes. She twisted the bone in his chest painfullf one, twice, before withdrawing it.

"Kumori, just finish. He's not worth it," hissed Hikari, grabbing her arm. She pulled her arm away angrily, but took his advice, giving him a quick blow to his chest with the bone and killing him instantly. She stood as the body fell still in an overly large puddle of blood. The storm had died down slightly.

"Let's get going," she said, picking up her cloak and slipping it back on. She took off without a word about the battle or what had been said during it, dashing through the snow. The wing had died down, leaving just the snow to fall and obscure their path, making travelling somewhat easier.

They reached the village a half hour later, easily jumping the low walls and narrowly avoiding a jounin patrol as they slipped into the frozen village. What Hikari and Tsuno saw from the shadows froze their hearts.

Children ranging from babies unable to even walk and still clinging to their mothers to people their age, fifteen and sixteen, huddled together for warmth along the sides of the street. People were walking around as if they didn't exist, passing right by them without doing anything. The children able to speak were begging for food, mothers doing anything to buy attention. There was a frozen body feet from them, a girl around six years old who had been unable to hold out against the harsh weather.

"This is... Horrible," said Hikari, looking around at the number of people lining the streets.

"This is what you grew up in?" he hissed, turning towards her. She nodded, glancing around.

"Let's go," she ordered, tearing their gaze away from the helpless children. She acted as if it made no difference to her, but it did. She was struggling to hold back tears, knowing they would freeze her eyes shut, as she dashed to the rooftops, taking to the shadows. She remembered every individual sidepath and shortcut in this town, but she was leading them the wrong way purposely.

She paused at the edge of a tall building, looking into the perpetually dark alleyway. She had never seen it in the light. She had never seen it in the past year and a half. She had never seen the one chained in it for as long. It smelled even worse than before, the garbage bin overflowing.

Kumori dropped down from the edge of the building, into the darkness fearlessly and landing in a crouch. Hikari landed beside her, but Tsuno remained on the building, keeping watch with Shouri.

"We shouldn't be distracted, Kumori," he warned gently. But she had no intention of following orders at the moment.

"....Akame...?"

There was no answer, no usual shifting noise or coughing.

"Akisu?"

Still no noise whatsoever. Her foot touched something cold and dead as she stepped forwards and she looked into a pair of frozen, red eyes. She almost screamed, but she calmed down when she saw it was not Akame, moving forwards again. There were several dead bodies here, and what was odd was they were mostly shinobi, wearing Cloud head protectors, their faces all contorted in fear or shock.

Hikari followed her deeper into the alley, past the garbage bin and towards the chain-link fence. There was a faint light shining from the opposite side of the fence, allowing her to easily see that there was no shadow of a person there. She stepped forwards, her hand reaching out towards a limp chain hanging alone from the chain link..

"Kumori, look at this," said Hikari. She turned, noticing her surroundings for the first time. The faint light illuminated the walls ever so slightly, but it was enough to allow her to view them clearly. They seemed to be painted red, blood spattering every inch but stopping ten feet up. There was only one unmarked area, a place where the wall was still its normal colour. This clear spot was in the shape of a boy, only slightly taller than herself, tracing his form exactly. It was Akame.

"What happened, Akame?" she whispered, holding a hand up to the wall and tracing the edge of the blood with a finger.

"Let's go, Kumori. We have to get this over with quickly before they find the bodies of the jounin we fought with," warned Hikari.

"I can't believe... everything I've lived for since then... useless. That medical-nin was right. I'm just a demon, a useless killer who'll do anything ordered of me."

She pulled back her arm and punched the wall with enough force to knock someone out, her fingers cracking as they connected with the cement, blood leaking down her arm and dripping off her elbow. She pulled it back again and hit the wall with more force this time, the cement braking along with her hand. She had never broken a bone before due to her bloodline, but there was no way she couldn't break them with the force she used.

"Stop it!" hissed Hikari, reaching forwards.

"Don't touch me," she growled back, still facing the wall. There was a long pause, and when she moved again, it was with a different mind, a different personality. She had run out of anger and sorrow, leaving her with nothing to feed off of, nothing to live for. Raising her hand slowly, deliberately, she forced her fingers apart, the bones snapping audibly in protest. She then ran her hand across Akame's silhouette's body, leaving five thin slide marks of dark red blood that ran down the wall thickly.

"I'll kill him," she rasped. "he took my life away, now I'll take his. For you, for the lady Raikage, for my clan, for everyone who I've ever known, everything I've ever lived for. I'll kill him for you. And this time, I'll keep my promise."

She dropped her hand, closing her eyes for a moment. It was useless to resist, her old self was taking full control. She was the same demon she had been before meeting Akame, and it was because of him she had reverted back to her true self.

"Let's go," she growled angrily, vanishing and landing on the rooftop above. She stood, Tsuno and Hikari joining her as she opened her poisons holster, removing a single, oddly shaped vial and holding it up in the snow, examining it from behind the mask. It contained a clear liquid. It was scentless, tasteless and indistinguishable from water. The perfect poison, a chemically based poison that killed within minutes, made the last minutes of life living hell, and was not reversable. It had been her favourite, and one of her only, poisons, and had also been the first one she had been taught how to make.

She shifted slightly, setting their course before taking off at an incredible speed towards the large office in the center of town where the Raikage lived. She would make this quick. The three Leaf-nin and the dog landed in silence in the shadows on the rooftop of the office building. Kumori split away slightly.

"You two keep watch out here, I'm going to go in alone. The less people, the less chance of being captured," she lied. What she really wanted was to watch the Raikage suffer alone, with no one to order her around.

Before Hikari could protest, she had vanished, slipping down and making her way into the building. It didn't take her long to find the Raikage; he was preparing to eat his dinner-which had been served by a group of young boys in uniform. she was currently huddled in the rafters, looking down at the fairly large meal. There was another boy beside the Raikage, but he was of higher stature- a jounin at least.

The Raikage wore the clothes she was used to seeing the Rokudaime in, and it caused her hatred to flare up again. He was speaking quietly to the boy beside him, his large hat obscuring his face from her as he leaned to the side. The boy, who would nod every now and then, was crouched on the ground beside him. He wore a completely black outfit, save for a blood red scarf tied around his waist. He wore a hunter-nin mask and the only skin showing on his entire body were his ears. His weapons were a pair od cat's claws, their long, metal blades stretching elegantly from his hands, longer than normal ones and made of a different type of metal.

She guessed the boy to be the one the Hokage had told them about, the one rumoured to be mare dangerous than the Raikage himself. He gave a final nod, bowing his head before vanishing, no puff of smoke, no noise, no black shadow, not even a slight breeze. Simply vanished into thin air. Kumori shrugged it off and leaned forwards as the Raikage said something to one of the boys.

She took the chance to tip the undetectable poison into the glass in front of him, two drops was all that was needed. He returned to his meal without noticing the slight ripples in his drink that quickly faded. It took him a long time before he finally reached for the drik, drinking down half of it before setting it back down and returning to his food. She waited patiently for the affects of the poison to set in.

But something happened she did not expect. The boy who had left minutes before returned a few seconds before the poison set to work and the Raikage fell from his chair. She was afraid that if she moved, her position would be betrayed, so she remained frozen to the spot, watching as the boy pulled the Kage onto his back, trying frantically to keep him breathing.

Blood spewed from his mouth as he tried to cry out in pain, spattering the boy's hunter-nin mask. He took it off, casting it across the room, but not revealing much more about himself. The only sking visible now was the sking around his eyes, which was pale and strained, small sweat beads forming as he tried to keep his Kage aliive. It took only a few more moments for the Kage to stop twitching, and he fell still in the boy's arms.

Something else unexpected happened then. A small amount of snow that had been nestled close to her body finally melted, a drop slipping from her hand and falling onto the wooden floor, breaking the silence. The boy looked up immediately and their eyes met through her mask, fear momentarily flashing through both before turning to anger. But she had not chance to move before he was beside her, grabbing her and falling back to the floor, grinding his abnormally long cat's claws into her shoulder and stomach at the same time. She had been totally unprepared for such an attack, and the weapons went in deep, especially in her stomach, blood leaking from her mouth.

But she was smiling, she had avenged Akame, keeping her promise this time and killing the Raikage. She fell to her knees as the boy slammed her into the floor roughly, crushing her lungs. His claws were poised millimeters from her neck as his eyes flared in anger.

"Who the fuck are you!? What did you do to Raikage-sama!? I'll... I'll rip you apart!!"

"He deserved it," she rasped painfully, more blood leaking from her lips and running down her cheeks, past her ears and onto the floor.

"Like hell he did! Who the hell are you!? Did you escape with the other Anbu!?" he hissed, slightly quieter, but more dangerously.

"Like you're gonna get anything out of me," she rasped. Her hand was groping for the vial of poison, but she couldn't feel it.

He dug the weapon into her throat, drawing more blood, and she looked him fearlessly in the eyes. _The eyes.... the eyes.... Red._

"You're eyes..." she coughed. They were exactly like Akame's, with the same cat-like slits for pupils, the same ferocity.

"Just like... Akame's."

The grip around her neck suddenly loosened as he pulled back, her blood spattered on his face and his cat's claws soaked in it.

"Who the hell are you?" he hissed suddenly. He grabbed her Anbu cloak, lifting her with incredible strength and slamming her against the wall, ripping off her mask. Her hood fell away along with it, blood leaking freely from her mouth.

The boy suddenly slumped to the ground, wrapping his arms around her and rocking back and forth slowly, cradling her.

"What the hell are you doing," she spat, blood flying from her mouth as she tried to push away from him. He held her at arms length and completely pulled off his mask, revealing a handsome, pointed face, a pair of cat-like red eyes, raven black hair and... the remains of a leather collar and a small peice of chain hanging around his neck.

"Aka..." she felt to weak to finish her sentance. Her breath was stolen away and her vision blurred, but she fought harder than she had ever done before to stay concious.

"Akame..."


End file.
